We all encounter a day that changes us permanently. One that affects us so deeply, it is absolutely impossible to forget. Major was hardly an effect on me compared to this.
On what I thought was just another Tuesday morning back in freshman year, I was having breakfast with Deena. I remember every detail of that Tuesday. It started off great and then quickly became the worst day of my life.
Ummi was upstairs getting dressed, as it was her day to drive us to school. Deena and I were in the kitchen eating Frosted Flakes. Breakfast soon turned into an all out flake fight. We were throwing the cereal everywhere and laughing at our fun. Once we heard Ummi locking her bedroom door, we grabbed the brooms and frantically swept up the mess. By the time she came down the stairs, there was no evidence of what had occurred just a few minutes ago.
"Don't think I don't know what you both were doing," she chastised as we looked at each other with surprise. "At least you had the sense to clean up."
We burst out laughing and ran to get our coats in the hall. That day, Ummi straightened both our hijabs before we left the house. I remember that she smiled after doing so, and held our hands as we walked towards the car.
We listened to the radio during the ride, just like we did every day, and sang along to our favorite songs. Deena was dropped off first, because Caldwell was closer to Ummi's university. She was a professor in the theology department. I'd visited her classes before. She really was a great teacher.
As we pulled up to my school, I received a hug and a kiss, just as Deena had, and then I was on my way.
"Barak-allahu-feeh (May Allah bless you)!" Ummi called out of the window, just as she always did. Everything was going so normally, I had no idea that today was going to be unlike any other day I'd ever experienced. Today was the going to be the day that changed me.
During study hall that morning, we were watching the news as the teacher's method of making us "learn something". The weather forecast was on at the time. At 8:46 A.M., there was a breaking news report.
It was Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
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Hijabi Style: The Surprisingly Average Life Of A Teenage Muslim Girl
Teen Fiction***This ebook is complete*** A lot of people have a misconception about the nature of Muslims, what with all the bad publicity of "Islamic" terrorists who aren't real Muslims at all. Our character, Yasmeen Abdul, takes us through the ups and downs o...
