Project Muslimah [COMPLETED]

Lesson Thirty: Finally Giving Up

REMINDER: Please pray your prayers on time before anything else :) 

Amarah 

I made absolutely no friends at college so far. Everyone seems so different. This isn't high school where you see a person and you randomly say hi and instantly become friends. As if it were just as easy as making instant coffee or instant noodles. Even those aren't easy to make though. 

"Hi?" A girl sitting next to me said. I turned to her, startled at first, but as soon as I relaxed myself, I began responding normally. 

"Hi." I said, smiling. 

"Well, I just had a question about the topic." She began flipping through notes and talking at the same time. She had brown eyes, brown hair, a grey summer dress, and a very loud voice. As soon as I answered her question, she went back to taking notes. And so did I. Plus, there were barely any Muslim girls around. Or there were, except they were just hard to spot. 

After class was done, she came up to me once more. Is it another question about the class? Because the last time I was lucky enough to be paying attention in class. 

"Um, Hi...." She said, awkwardly and queitly this time.

"Hi." I replied back with a smile. 

"Um, I know this sounds a little weird, but... I don't exactly see you talking to people." She was being very quiet about this. "And I haven't exactly gotten to know anyone either. Um... do you wanna hang out some time?" She asked. I was astonished. Not because she was asking me to be her friend but because she felt exactly like me. I could tell instantly. 

"Oh goodness! I'd love to! Amarah, by the way." I replied. "Talking to people here is so awkward no matter how social I was in high school." 

"Exactly! Oh and my name's Miranda." She said, bringing her voice up a notch. We got a long quite well. It was hard to bring up interesting topics though. Because we practically had nothing in common. And because there were only a few things we had in common, we spent hours talking about just that.... simply because there was nothing else to talk about. "Hmm..." She said, thinking. "I don't remember it being this hard to bring up a topic to talk about." 

"Tell me about it..." I said, a little awkwardly. "So what's your background?" I asked her. 

"Plain Canadian." She answered. "Well, my mom's British and my dad's Canadian raised and born so yeah... And you?" She asked. 

"Well, I'm Canadian cause I was born and raised here. My parents are Afghan." Her face showed immediate discomfort. 

"Afghan?" She asked. 

"Yup." I replied. "Is there something wrong with that?" I asked her. 

"Is your family like part of the Taliban or something?" She asked quite seriously. Wow.... so straightforward. 

"No." I replied bluntly, immediately losing interest in having her as a friend. Come on Amarah, it's not like she knows any better. She probably learns her information from the media. "Why would you think that?" I asked her. 

"Well, you seem like the religious type and plus you're Afghan and people like you.... I'm sorry." She finally said. 

"Nah, it's okay." I said, trying to calm my stubborn paranoid heart down. "I don't really get how religious Muslims are dangerous though... There's like so many practicing Muslims in the world and they don't blow stuff up." I was honestly too tired to get her to think logically. "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to go now." I said, can't helping the fact that my voice was filled with pain. I guess it was from all that working that I was tired.