It sadens me that there’s so little hope in all the posts over the past few years. To be honest you talk about the same problems over and over again.

I hope in future blogs I see you turn this situation around. Find solutions to your problems in your own way and on your own terms.

I’m not giving advice, cos we all have to figure it out for ourselves. That’s what scares me too about moving my life forward too, having to always make the effort to solve my problems and maintain hope and motivation.

But I will say with this comment I hope to inspire you to action. There’s a time for introspection and writing in blogs, then there’s time for action that will actually change things.

L

Reading your post really struck a cord with me. I’m going through exactly the same thing. Well, I hope it’s just a “thing”–something temporary–because I can’t continue to live my life this way. I don’t know what to tell you because I don’t have the answers. I’m still trying to figure that out myself. I concur with what you said about wanting to go back to the way you were–carefree and naive. These last few days I’ve been doing just that: reminiscing about my childhood and what I would do to return to those happy days. And whenever I hear a drama-queen’s spiel about his or her miserable life I get disgusted, not only at the said drama-queen but at myself as well. Do I really sound that way? I look at myself as an omniscient fly on the wall and see how pitiful I am: weak, whining, depressed, and sad all the time. But when I read your post I couldn’t feel anything but sympathy. I agree with you; you’re not the only “rebellious” one, and I really think we’re all the same. Especially Arab Muslims raised in the US/Canada. I think we’re all pretty much going through the same crises, and it’s ridiculously tough. I feel like over the years I’ve dug myself into a hole–more like a chasm–and every time I try to claw myself out I end up slipping back down into a state of despondent misery. The pressure to succeed in life, which comes not only from our parents and peers but ourselves as well, only compounds the misery. In order to escape, the single thing I can do is flood my senses with diversions: TV, movies, doughnuts, music, or sleeping–basically anything to get my mind off my depressing situation(except for haram things…which is ironic because I’m ruining my life anyway). It’s sad, it’s pathetic, and it needs to stop.

I don’t know what I need to do to escape but I know I MUST. The one last thing I haven’t tried is to connect with others like me. My very last hope is that together we can help each other and improve our situations. I’m convinced that there are a whole bunch of Arab Muslims, just like us, going through the same exact crap. That’s why I wanted to start up some type of support community/forum/anything to get our voices heard. Please let me know if this is something you’d be willing to help out with.

Karim