A year is Near.

Asalam walaikum, Hello, Hola, and good day mate.
Well I'm a bit embarrassed because I haven't written anything in about 10 months. My plan at the start was to be consistent and that totally failed. I guess the main reason was because I started working at Taibah University and that took over my free time AKA "My Life". So Here I am again, with a lot of time on my hands and ready to try again. Since the first few months so much has happened and It's hard to recall it all in detail. So I guess I'll try to pick up the pieces where I left off, here goes!

Today is May 5th 2011. Inshallah (God willing) I will be back in the states in 13 days. Man It's so close, yet so far away. I really never thought the day would be as close as it is now. On June 10th, It will be exactly one year since I moved with my husband to Medinah. Boyyy things have changed, and so have I of course, that's a part of life I suppose. Less then a month after I moved to Medinah a friend of a friend told me that the University was hiring for the summer program. I made a few phone calls and literally the next day I was hired. I would later find out why they were such in need of teachers during the summer. Exited, anxious, and a bit on the nervous side I went, ready for what ever they could possibly toss at me. Well, let's just say that I wasn't ready enough. In my head I pictured the perfect classroom with great students ready to learn English. Instead, I got rude, unenthusiastic, miserable students who had a chip on their shoulder because they weren't traveling with the rest of the family because they had to take a summer English course with me because they failed last semester! Yea that's a lot to take in huh, imagine how I felt. Boy was that difficult; those 8 weeks felt like a year and I think that was when I discovered that I grew a second gray hair:(. Despite that I was extremely excited to start the new year with fresh new students that would take English a bit more serious, and try a bit more harder, and I know I'm pushing my luck, but perhaps have a Bit more respect:) Ohh well I guess you figured it out, after the summer classes were over I was hired as a teacher during the normal school year. Now this means that I would ultimately have to stop going to tahfeeth school (were I learn how to recite Quran properly) and that really bothered me. I told myself that I was going to find a personal one on one tutor but that never happened either. To make a dreadfully long story short, I was completely bogged down at work and at home. I would work from 10-5 but I wasn't quite done after that. I would get home and look up supplementary material, grade homework, and literally be up until like 12 pm with all the extra things I had to get done for the next day. Towards the end of the first semester I started to remember why I came here in the first place. What was I doing, I started to loose myself, and I also felt the stress of work start to change my life with hubby as well. Despite the stress I was making good money, does that make it worth it? What about the fact that I was no longer studying Arabic. I put serious thought into just holding on for the duration of the year. I also put serious thought into leaving. What shall I do, What shall I do, the thoughts were taking over. Finally I decided that I need to let the job go because my intention was not to come to Saudi to make a lot of money. My intention was to benefit from living here by using the resources around me. It was such a difficult decision because "Bashirs' don't quit". That was something I grew up hearing, and to this day I hear my father saying it to my nephew. Everything I started I had to finish. I remember when I started running track and I hated it because it was so hard. I told my father I wanted to quite and he said, "Halimah just finish out this season and you never have to run again, just don't quit". Although I wanted to quit right then and there, I hung in there and after that season, I was hooked. From 7th grade to college track was my life and Subhanallah It got me through college. So in my head quitting meant you couldn't stand the heat, and that had to be the furthest thing from the truth. I realized that one of us had to benefit while we had the opportunity to be in such a Holy place, and we were both just working. So I prayed and asked Allah to help me to decide whats best. The materialist things or the beneficial things that would help me in this life as well as the hereafter. I'm doing this for Allah sake, to become closer to him, to one day be able to teach my children proper tajweed, and to ultimately get closer to my creator. Once I realized the importance of learning, the rest was history. This was a very difficult decision that I had to make, but Alhumdulillah I think it was well worth it. The day I meet my Creator I can't say here is some money I earned for you, but I can say that this is the knowledge I gained in Medinah for your sake, and your sake alone.