Malika Bashir had a darkened view of the world. Ibrahim Ahmad refused to see anything but the light.
Soon, a friend from the past appears at Ibrahim's doorstep and a mysterious set of letters are left in his bedroom. Old conflicts are raised and ne...
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... Malika,
I'm glad I found the letters, even if you didn't want me to read them. Without them, I would have never known your soft heart, your strength and resilience, or found the words that speak directly to my soul.
Not many can love the way you do. There's a lot to learn from the way you continue to view your loved ones with forgiveness and kindness. ...
Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, and before Malika knew it, she was sitting for the last finals of her University life.
It was more underwhelming than she expected it to be. Malika walked into the building she frequented for four years like any other day, and walked out realizing this was the last time she'd be a full time student, considering she had no plans for higher studies.
Unlike most of her peers, Malika was glad to be done with this stage of her life. She realized that she still had a lot of healing to do from the experiences she had in high school. So before entering the next phase of her life, Malika dedicated the last few months of her University life, and also some time after that, to healing, finding herself and strengthening her relationship with God. She sought out professional help for her anxiety as Dahlia suggested.
Malika realized she had every right to build a relationship with Allah if she wanted to, and that she could no longer let her past define her. Allah did not discriminate, only people did. Her insecurities may have stemmed from other's treatment of her, but they settled in her heart because she allowed them to. She needed to learn to see her own worth if she ever wanted to be valued. She needed to learn to love herself and her religion properly before she could love anyone else.
On the day of her convocation, Malika stayed curled up on her bed and watched reruns of Friends. Her mother insisted she was going to regret it someday. But Malika doubted it. She had no special friends or attachment to her University. However, she did show up as a guest for Dahlia and Layla's convocation, who graduated four months later, and cheered for them wholeheartedly.
The girls were done throwing their caps into the air and bidding their classmates goodbye as they walked towards her.
"Finally stepping into the real world," Dahlia cried as she stepped closer to Malika. "What's it like on the other side?"
"Meh." Malika shrugged. "Kind of sucks, but you'll get through it."
Their graduation dinner was hosted by their mothers unanimously, along with some of Dahlia's sisters and Salman. They went to the famous kabab house with the bright pleather cubicles. Malika heard this place was being turned into a burger joint. She roamed her eyes sadly around the familiar interior as she recalled the number of mundane afternoons she had spent here with her brother and friends, and couldn't think of a better place to celebrate.
