#election2012

I'm not much of a tweeter but on presidential debate nights and especially tonight, I love twitter!!! Most of what I enjoy are the jokes (I had a good time scrolling through "binders full of women" comments) but it's also really useful when your parents send you up to your bedroom to do homework but statistics isn't as interesting as the leader of the free world.

On top of all that twitter, this is the first election when I really know what's going on. In 2008, I was an 8th grader, vague about issues and taking in all of my information from The Daily Show. Now, I'm 5 months away from being an adult (GAHHHH!!!! I want to vote!!) and because I drive myself to school, I got a dose of NPR almost every morning. I really care this time about the issues and the outcome of the election.

I'm not sure what time this will post as but it's 10:35 PM and I am getting really anxious about the Congressional campaigns. People always wonder why voting matters because there are 300+ million people in this country and one vote won't make Obama or Romney win but WHAT ABOUT THE LOCAL ELECTIONS!?! Those are so important for deciding how Congress votes, state legislature, state Supreme Court, gerrymander, and so much more!! Voting shows candidates the proportion of how many citizens believe in certain causes— why else would someone vote for a third party candidate? Do they really think that Jill Stein will be come president? No! They vote for her to show that they care about the environment, social causes, and peace!

Anyway.... I actually do have to get that statistics done so I'll have to leave but there will definitely be an election reaction post. Maybe not definitely. I'll at least write it in my head.

Yay Elizabeth Warren!

What Everyone is Being for Halloween This Year

This is a list of the costumes that I am seeing EVERYWHERE. (bloggers, youtubers, adults, teens, even babies...)

1. Frida Kahlo: it's really simple— some eyeliner for a unibrow, a flower crown, and a shawl. Throw in a paint brush if you're feeling fancy and all of a sudden, you're cool and artsy. Nope.

2. Minnie Mouse: she's cute! Just throw on a red and white polka dotted dress and put your hair in two buns! Ugh.

3. Dia de los Muertos skull— the makeup takes a while but at least everyone at the party will think you're the coolest hipster chick out there. Sorry, if everyone's doing it, it's no longer hipster.

4. Slutty things— it's just different versions of a prostitute costume.

5. Zombies— they're the new vampire but I'll allow it. Zombies are a Halloween classic and they usually travel in groups anyway. 

6. Cher from Clueless— it's an amazing movie and she's hilarious but you would have to be "totally buggin" if you think you're being original this year with this costume. We're all upset over this one. 

There are probably more but I can't think of them. Also, if you need ideas, CHECK THESE OUT!

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

IT'S LIKE RAAAEEEAAAINN!!! ON YOUR WEDDING DAY!

I'm joking.

I just saw the "You Don't Own Me" video featuring a bunch of really cool women and I decided to look up Lesley Gore. Through a little Youtubing, I found that some of her songs, while super cute and fun, contratic each other in a pretty dramatic way. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, I'm just saying that it's a thing, a funny thing, and I noticed it... enjoy!

It's Halloween (but not yet)

I felt the need to share the most hilarious video in the world...

I love Molly and Shamikah (the two girls in the video) so much and I'm fairly certain I've seen all of them but this one has to be my favorite. The relevance! The honesty! The costumes! It's 100% fantastic and necessary for everyone to watch and share.

Also, I'm having a Halloween problem! I usually decide my costume during the first week of November of the previous year (because I'm that into costumes) and last year, I decided that I would be Frida Kahlo because I already have the dark hair and I could have the unibrow and mustache if I let everything grow out but now I'm seeing that costume everywhere! While I don't want my Halloween plans to be destroyed by blogs and videos, I also don't want to go the easy way out and pick such as obvious costume.

Another thing, my plan B was a Cluelessesque outfit decked with plaid, crop tops, and knee socks but now that's all over R29 and TMR too! (girl problems) And I can't just have a boring costume... I've gone so long without buying a costume and there is absolutely no chance that I'm going to start now.

The Most Hilarious Thing That Happened to Me Today

As you may be able to guess, high school isn't very funny. It can be fun and interesting, as I think a lot of my classes are, but I don't find myself laughing out loud on a daily basis. Today after school, I had one of those rare hilarious moments when I was working on graphics for my school's newspaper. I was in the newspaper room (a glorified closet lined with computers on one side and a whiteboard on the other) when my friend and I, the paper's Managing Editor, decided that the keyboards are too gross for use. To give a bit of context, we use iMacs meaning that the keys are supposed to be pure white but after years of grubby fingers clacking away at them, the keys are more or less all turned a grayish beige. Ew.

We told a junior who was in the room to go into a teacher's room (not some random room, she is the paper's teacher advisor) and get some disinfectant wipes. So he did and my friend and I started cleaning each keyboard, key by key. The results were amazing— pure white and clean in minutes!

But that wasn't what made me laugh. The funny part happened after we were done.

Upon seeing the newly cleaned devices, my friend proclaimed, "they look like new!" and in response, as a wiped down one last remaining smudge, I sang "And it's like the sky is new!" from a song in the spectacular movie Tangled. As I finished the line and wiped down the last key, that song, the very song whose line I sang, started playing!!

We were both shocked. And laughing— falling over each other in disbelief. After some investigating, I saw that on the computer attached to the keyboard that I was wiping, only one song was saved onto iTunes and it happened to be "I See the Light".

It was amazing and while I sometimes blame that paper for taking up my free periods, complicating my class schedule, and giving me more stress, I cannot deny that it has gifted me with some pretty fantastic memories.... like listening to a guy at a local Blues Fest this past weekend talk about why he's a "Romney birther" while I was just trying to get people to donate money to the paper (and trying not to laugh with my fellow designer by chewing on ice while he spoke).




If you aren't obsessed with Tangled, it's because you haven't seen it. 

Hair Growing Out of My Lips

For those of you without blogs, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.... Blogger let's you see where people found links to your blog and how many people have clicked on that link. Usually, it shows the URLs of websites that I go on for articles that I've commented on. That's totally normal and I post the link to my blog at the end of the comment to get some readahz.

Today, I discovered that someone found my blog by Googling "hair growing out of my lips".

Look!!! It's me! Apparently, because I typed that my hair had grown out enough for a bob and I said what lipstick I was wearing, it's a match!

I would also like to apologize for never posting. And I would like to encourage people to follow me on Instagram to see my wicked sweet nail art (I'll post the pictures eventually).

The writing/writing style on this post is disgusting. Don't judge me.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

Why Do I Do These Things to Myself?

It's (almost) funny to me that I (almost) go out of my way to alienate myself from my classmates. To give one example...

In my U.S. history class, we've finished learning everything new and my teacher loves useless assignments so we were told to create a postage stamp that features an image that represents 2000-2010. We were all assigned a letter (A, B, C, or D) and each letter corresponded with a few topics. I was given D— sports, trendsetters. or fashion. Obviously, I choose fashion because I know nothing about sports and "trendsetters" is vague.

To cut out details, I draw this picture of Karlie Kloss in Alexander McQueen from fall '09 and when I hang it up on the board with the other Ds, at least 5 people ask me what it is. And none of them know the name "Alexander McQueen".

I awkwardly present the reasoning behind my image and I make sure to keep it short because my class already thinks I'm crazy. 

The best part, someone else did fashion. And they drew the logos for Hollister, Abercrombie, and Uggs. I'm glad to see we're all on the same page (sarcasm). 

Well, It's about time!

WHY AM I SO BAD AT POSTING THINGS??

Luckily, school is over in only two weeks (I'm freaking out a little over this) so I'm going to have some more time to post things soon! And I really hope I can start doing some fashion/beauty posts!

But right now, I have tests to study for and projects to complete so I'm going to share what I looked like at prom! After those posts about my promblems, I am happy to report that things went really well that night and I am beyond happy that I went with someone who is just a friend because it just made everything so much easier!

Going from the top down:

Hair- I am so glad that I went to a salon because I would never have been able to do this on my own. I'm not bad at doing hair but after months of nothing to work with (the pixie), I've lost some of my touch! ALSO, I HAVE A BOB... MEANING THAT I'VE OFFICIALLY GROWN OUT MY PIXIE! (that's another post I have to get around to— the long journey of growing out hair)

Makeup: on my eyes, I did a quick grey/brown smokey look with thin black liner on the top and I used MAC's Vegas Volt on my lips.  The lip collage of the color is from temptalia.com, an absolutely amazing beauty blog with a huge selection of drugstore and high end swatches and reviews. 

The Dress: I posted a picture of it in a previous post but this is me with it on! I decided not to go with the insane pink platforms because they made me too tall and I decided that it would be better to just return them and get my money back because everyone takes their shoes off pretty early at prom. Instead, I wore my sister's gold heels and while they were a half size too small— and because of that, very painful— I'm glad I made the last minute shoe switch.

I almost forgot to share my nails!! Because of the cliche prom theme "a night to remember", I did galaxy nails and I'm really happy with the way they came out! 

Promblem Solved!

I feel like I should have written this a while ago because things have been fine for over a week. Well, long story short, I ended up asking a sophomore who I have a couple of classes with to prom and I think it's going to be a fun night. All of my friends have dates so I didn't want to go without one and I'm glad that I didn't let one of my friends set me up with a stranger. The only downside to prom is that now, I'm organizing the limo and the pre-prom pictures.

Problems with the limo: I had to have long conversations with multiple limo companies, people keep going back and forth between wanting and not wanting the limo, some people are still complaining about the limo price even though one of my friends and I negotiated the price to about 50% of the price listed on the website, I have to bother people about paying their share because the entire thing was purchased on my dad's credit cart and there is no way they're getting out of paying!

Problems with pictures: there are going to be about 30 kids at my house, not all of whom I really know, at my house on Saturday. Now, I really don't care that friends have asked to invite their friends that have nowhere to go but I do care that some people are complaining about the size of the crowd. My philosophy: no one is gluing you to the people you don't know so there's no harm in letting a few more couples come for pictures.

Photos from Huffingtonpost.com

And one more thing, how amazing is it that so many people wore orange to the Met Gala!?! While my dress isn't very crazy, it is quite bold to show up to prom in a color that most high school girls don't go for so it really validates my superiority dress choice to see all of these ladies in that color! 

Promblems.

Woah. I have heard people talk about how stressful prom is but now that I'm a junior, I finally understand.

My dress and shoes were easy to find. I got my dress online fairly quickly and despite buying a different dress and going dress shopping with my mom about three times, that step was moderately stress free. To get my shoes, I brought my dress to the shoe department at Bloomingdale's and bought the first pair that I tried on.

These are them! I haven't finalized my accessories but I know that they will be gold and simple.

The only problem is that these are the only things that have been planned. For example, I don't have a date (and I've more or less given up on that hope) and tickets are only on sale next week. You want to know the saddest thing? I almost feel guilty about wanting a date. Maybe guilty isn't the best word... I feel like I'm betraying some false perception that people have of me. To give an example of that, a good friend of mine was shocked to hear that I want a date because I'm a feminist or something. Wow, really? 1. caring about gender equality doesn't make someone an aspiring cat lady or freak  and 2. I'm 17, it's prom, do the math. The way I wrote that brings up another problem— I'm too harsh. I am fully aware that I come off that way but I almost can't help it! ...Almost. Yes, I could stop sharing my opinions but what fun would that be? Maybe I won't get a date to prom because I like substantive discussion and I'm not afraid to stand up for what I believe in (or maybe that's totally not the reason) but at least I'm going to look great unique. I don't know where this is supposed to be going.

Also, no duh, I did my nails. I'm boring. Maybe that's why I don't have a date. And mom, if you're reading this, I don't want to go with one of your friends' sons.

Wondering why this picture is so much better than the other ones? It's because I got an iPhone!

Preparing for a great birthday

This post is going to be very short but I wanted to share that I GOT MY LICENSE! and I painted festive (birthday) nails yesterday. 

So first, the nails. I've been digging Make My Day, which is a nail blog/artist/company thing (I honestly don't know what it is). The designs on the website are so interesting to look at and while I'm clearly not the best at designs that rely on being precise, I thought I would try one of the simpler designs.  

To complete the look, I started by painting my nails a very very very very light green (almost white) and then I went in with one color at a time to do the chevrons.

And my license— the test went surprisingly well! It was my second attempt (my first try ended right after  I just barely failed parallel parking) and I was very lucky to have a cheerful person administer the test. The entire time, the woman judging my driving skills was talking about her motorcycle, hybrid cars, gas prices, and the other kids who take the test. After I was told that I passed, I couldn't stop smiling! If I had failed, it would have made for a decently bad birthday. Now, I have nothing to complain about! ... but not really. 

Stop the madness!

Why do I always do this!! I've seriously been telling my self to post something for the past week but every time I open my computer, Facebook and Hulu suck me in. But not this time!

I also have really been wanting to adress the list that I created in my last post but because I'm tired and I want to get it done, I'm going to talk about most of the things and only save certain ones to have their own posts.

Oh wait, the list isn't actually that long. Instead I'll talk about this blog— where it's going and where I want it to go.

When I started the blog, I really didn't know what it would become but I didn't expect to alternate between text and nails— which reminds me, I have a nail thing to post. I expected to share more fashion related things but I think that a combination of my own laziness, lack of Photoshop and Illustrator (I had a 30 day trial but it's over now), near embarrassment in my interest in the subject, and my self doubt on my ability to know anything has prevented me from doing so. Yes, I wear clothes and I can post about that but everything I wear is boring. Do you want to know what I'm wearing? Jeans. Jeans, a simple shirt, and a black cardigan. And maybe once a week I'll wear one of the 3-5 dresses that I actually wear to school. I'm not sure if it's because of my lack of sleep but I've recently almost stopped caring about what I wear. Or maybe I've stopped caring because while I have clothing quantity, I don't have clothing quality. And maybe that's why I'm so obsessed with having interesting nails. Hmmm... things are all coming together.

I don't want to keep posting long things of text but I don't know what else to do! Without a way to edit pictures, it's hard to create wishlists or shopping guide things or any post like that. I'm seriously considering switching to vlogs on YouTube but I know that I don't have the camera, editing skills, or energy to take on that task. Also, I wouldn't be able to listen to my own voice. Ugh. I'm a mess right now. And spring break really didn't help with that. Why? Because my spring break was five days of college visits and two days of vomiting. Or something like that.

Also, this. And this.

Hopefully I can get my life back together.

Nude Nails 2.0 and a bunch of updates

Oh boy. Once again, I've been lazy with posting. I'm always coming up with ideas for things to write on here but my problem is that I always think of things at really inconvenient times— in the shower, at school, in the car, while I'm doing homework. So this post will probably be jam-packed with the exciting things that I've been up to. And to make things easier for myself, I'm going to number them. Deal with it.

1. My Nails! 

Yes, yes. I know that it's not Friday... or even Saturday. It's Sunday! It seems like Nailday isn't really working out too well. To be honest, I did plan on doing it and I painted my nails on Friday night but it got late and I got am lazy. Remember, late is better than never! 

So as you can see, it's not very exciting. But it's still more interesting than plain beige! At first, I was going to keep it simple and go for nude nails but similar to the situation with my Valentine's Day nails, I got bored with it. To jazz things up a bit, I added gold triangle-ish things to the tips of my nails. My only disclaimer is that the flashes of gold are really distracting when I move my hands so paint with caution! 

2. LUSH!!!! 

For a while now, I have watched "beauty gurus" on YouTube talk about how much with love Lush products and I have always wanted to try them out. Well, the other day, a friend of mine mentioned that she went to the Lush store at our local mall (with is HUGE) and I was confused because I know most of the mall stores and I have never noticed Lush (once again, because the mall is HUGE). So yesterday, I went to the mall with my mom to sort out some prom dress issues and I decided that I absolutely had check out Lush. After finding a mall directory, I spotted the Lush store and headed straight to where it was. I wasn't surprised that I hadn't noticed it before because the store is located in an area that I don't usually go to. When I stepped in, I was overwhelmed. The soap! The lotion! The face masks! The solid shampoo! I wanted it all.

After testing out a few things and smelling almost everything, I ended up walking out with a soap and a solid shampoo. These products smell amazing and while I was a bit skeptical of the solid shampoo, I was impressed by it when I showered last night. I didn't expect for the shampoo to lather very well because it feels very solid—it does crumble or anything like that— and because when I rubbed it in my hands to get some bubbles, my hands had barely anything on them. But, when I started to rub my hands into my hair, THERE WERE SO MANY BUBBLES!! It lathered perfectly and I could definitely see myself using the solid shampoos from now on.

3. The Hunger Games
I'm going to keep this one short because it's less exciting than nails and soap. I haven't read the books yet but everyone seems really into them. As of now, I'm almost half way through and I'm not blown away but it but it's interesting. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll get around to a review.

4. I'm a crazy person
Last night, instead of getting work done or posting anything on here, I cleaned out my bathroom countertop. To those of you who have never been through my bathroom— so everyone except my sister who shared it with me until she left for college last September— the countertop is cluttered with half empty bottles of products that don't get used anymore and containers filled with old junk.

Now, the unused and very old products have been thrown away, the junk-filled containers have been emptied, and things are looking a little better. Also, I emptied out an organizer that was on my dresser collecting jewelry from my middle school days (junk) and moved that into my bathroom to use for nail polish storage. The top compartment now holds things like nail clippers, files, dotting tools (pens and pencils covered in nail polish), and nail art pens, and the three drawers hold the polishes, arranged by color. Top drawer: neutrals including black, white, greys, and glitter. Middle drawer: warm colors. Bottom drawer: cool colors.

I think it's because of the Lush things but I now have a really strong desire to redo my bathroom. It also doesn't help that the walls are a watermelon pink and lined at the top with a wallpaper that features sail boats and smiling suns— a tragic choice made by the people we bought the house from.


I guess I'm done for now. I could have talked about Draw Something Free or the weather but this post is getting too long. 

DVF Awards

It seems like I'm beginning to get really lazy with this blog...

In the mean time, I am posting these pictures of me with some truly fabulous people from the Diller- von Furstenberg Awards. Enjoy!

 With Diane herself! Based on the various videos that I've seen of her in a range of settings, I expected her to be really nice and welcoming but she almost wasn't. I'm sure that she was very busy but it was surprising to see how quickly she switched from business-mode to smiling-for-a-picture mode.

 Jessica Alba! As I was about to walk to the other side of the room, Jessica Alba appeared and I pulled by mom back over to me so that she could be ready to take the picture. I wish the lighting had turned out better but hey, it's better than nothing.

 Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi! While many of my friends were freaking out about how Jessica Alba said that I looked pretty (d'awww), I was more excited about the conversation I had with Nancy Pelosi. She's such a genuinely kind and caring person so it was really great to talk to her for a few minutes before she got lost in the crowd of people trying to meet her.

And finally, Ingrid Michaelson! She performed a couple of songs at the event and I managed to take this picture when my mom and I were going into what I think was the VIP room to say 'hello' to a good friend who won one of the awards. Ingrid was just sitting on the couch eating so I introduced myself and got this picture.

I Lost Two Teeth Yesterday

No, not any teeth that you would see... I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday! 

At school on Thursday, I wasn't very nervous. Everything was normal, classes were the same, and I don't think I was acting very unusually. After math (5th period) I headed to the lobby to wait for my mom. When she arrived, I went home for a few minutes and then we went to the oral surgeon. 

I had been there once before for a quick consultation where I got a 3D x-ray done, watched a cheesy video about the process of getting wisdom teeth removed, and decided to commit to the procedure. When I walked in for the second time, I was anxious. I wasn't screaming or freaking out about anything but I was definitely aware that in a few minutes, I would be hooked up to a bunch of machines, knocked out, and my gums would be cut open (ew). 

It didn't take long for my name to be called. I closed the copy of Architectural Digest that my mom and I were flipping through (Diane von Furstenberg's house is really cool), put my coat on the chair that I was sitting on, and followed the nurse behind a white door. In this area of the practice, closets with open doors were filled with IV bags, chemicals, medicines, and other things that really didn't help with my nerves. I was led into a surgery room and instructed to rinse my mouth with a blue liquid sitting in a small paper cut by the sink— not mouth wash, something stronger (and grosser). The nurses then led me to the chair/bed in the middle of the room and placed a laughing gas thing on my nose. After this, the contraption on my face blocked me from seeing what was going on and I began to panic.

Now, I've never been good with needles. And by "never been good with needles", I mean that I probably have a phobia. Not seeing what was happening meant in my head that I was going to die. My knees began shaking and my teeth started chattering. With every new monitor that was put on my arm, clamp placed on my finger, and brush of the nurses walking by and checking things, I asked in fear, "is that a needle?!". Those nurses were probably so sick of me by then because I was freaking out. Between nervous gasps I tried to explain that I didn't care about the upcoming tooth extraction and that all of my shenanigans were in anticipation to a needle that might find it's way into my arm. 

When the surgeon came in, I was frantically trying to calm down. I know, I know. That doesn't make any sense. How can you frantically calm down? Exactly. I was crazy. 

He came in and it was very clear that I wan't feeling on top of the world. He asked me if I still wanted to go through with the surgery, I thought to myself "Uh... YEAH! I don't care about what happens after I fall asleep! I just can't take needles!!!", and I answered with a simple "yes". 

Then the needle came. I had been waiting for this moment for what felt like forever and the laughing gas was proving to be useless. The surgeon told me what he was going to do and the nurse gave me her hand. Big mistake. I squeezed her hand really hard and the whole time I was thinking about how my right arm (the one getting the IV) was about to fall off and my left arm (the one that was holding onto the nurse for dear life) was being mean to the poor woman trying to comfort me. As I prayed to myself, shut my eyes, and tried to be mature, I slowly felt myself slip away from the room and the beeping of the heart monitor got quieter and quieter. 

I then found myself in recovery where a different nurse helped me onto one of the beds. I don't know how I got in that room but I have a very vague memory of transitioning from something to the bed and another memory of trying to chew on what I thought were squishy teeth but what I later realized was just gauze— this would be the drugs wearing off. 

After lying down, I got to sleep. I have a feeling that I was dreaming some pretty strange things and that I woke up a few times because of the strange things that I saw but I have no idea what actually happened and what didn't. Also, I think I was singing to myself for a little bit. Then, I saw my mom again and tried to explain to her what had happened. Despite the sign that I pointed out to her that prohibited taking pictures or video, she whipped out her iPhone, pointed it at me, and told me to repeat what I had just said. While I was talking, I honestly thought that I was acting totally normal. In fact, the second video ends with me repeating "I'm not crazy" about five times in an effort to convince my mom that I was back to my regular self. 

After a talk about how to take care of me at home, my mom and a nurse led me to the car and I fell asleep with an icepack on my face. After getting home, I plopped myself on the couch. Luckily, my face wasn't very swollen and I was pretty much conscious by 5pm. The biggest issue to me was that I couldn't feel my chin until this morning. 

All in all, it went well and while I wish I could eat more than applesauce and rice, I'm glad that I got my wisdom teeth out before they grew more. 

Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Black Friday

Growing up as a Baha’i, I didn’t have much exposure to Christian traditions other than Christmas and Easter. Even with these two holidays, all I knew about when I was younger was that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, Easter has something to do with His death, and on both days, people get presents. I didn’t know because no one had really taught me. My parents probably told me what these various days celebrated but I felt too excluded by my lack of a tree and inexperience with egg hunting to take any of it in.

Then I heard about Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday. I have read about these on Wikipedia and I know that they relate to the crucifixion of Jesus and I have asked my classmates about them but I don’t have a good idea of the spirit of these days because of my lack of exposure to them. Are they holidays or holy days? How significant are these days? Do different sects celebrate them in different ways? I really don’t know. 

Hearing about Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday brought the opportunity to learn about Lent. In elementary school, kids would talk about giving up chocolate or Rugrats for a period of time but that was it. No one talked about why they gave up these things or what it meant. 

In middle school, I learned about Black Friday. To a fifth grade me, it was another Christian holiday named by an adjective and a day of the week. I had no idea what it was but I knew that stores loved it. Hearing people talk about “participating” in Black Friday really confused me and asking what it was embarrassed me. To be honest, I didn’t know that it was a day dedicated to America’s obsession with material things until a few years ago.        

On Wednesday when I saw a black cross on a forehead for the first time that year, I had to do a double take. Every year, I see people displaying the symbol and every year I have to ask in order to remember what it’s for. After only seeing it on two athletic girls before lunch I thought, “spirit day?”. Upon seeing it on a parent volunteer and a few guys later in the day, I rushed to my next period to ask people in my class. I then proceeded with a brief interrogation with my peers about the origin, significance, and execution of this tradition. 

It’s strange to me that people don’t like to talk about religion. Because it is one of those topics that everyone has some sort of connection to—whether or not one believes in God— I see it as an important factor in someone’s identity. Why have I only been exposed to the materialistic side of Christian holidays? I mean, really. I knew about Black Friday before I knew about actual Christian celebrations. And for some reason, I’m capitalizing it even thought it’s not a real thing!  If people talked about religion, maybe I would know more about these holidays and maybe others would know about Baha’i holidays, making it less awkward to sneak away during lunch for three weeks while I fast. 

Then there is the other angle on this issue. Once a year, Christians abstain from partaking in something that they enjoy, draw a symbol of religious devotion on their foreheads, and prepare for the coming of an important day with a period of reverence.  So then why are some people so weirded out by fasting, religious clothing, and periods of reverence when expressed by an unfamiliar faith?

There are so many themes that connect each religion and so many similarities that get looked over. Instead of being afraid of offending others by expressing differing beliefs, people should be open to–respectfully- talking about God and faith. We all have a personal relationship with religion and whether it is a positive or a negative one, we all have something to say and something to agree about.