Ramblings and Religious Studies

Here's what I want to tell you:

Leave him, don't let him do this to you. I'll help in any way I can and I promise that we will find a way for you to be happy again.

I hope you are on that plane Sunday night.


In other news, I am going to Seattle this weekend to visit my three favorite Santa Clara students, the girls that I spent two months in England with! I can't wait, except my flight leaves at six am on Friday morning, yikes! I only work two days this week and then I'll be in Seattle from Fri to Sun.

I bought the boy two shirts today in anticipation of him coming home and knowing that he worked out so much in Iraq that he is prolly a LG or XL now. Buying stuff like this for him makes me giddy. I can't wait to buy his shaving cream and shampoo and Mountain Dew...does this make me a dork, or just a person in love?

I finally have Rosetta Stone! I am so excited! My sister got it for my for my graduation. Since I plan on pursuing a PhD in Islamic Studies I need to get a jump start on learning Arabic this year. A little bit about why I want to do Islamic Studies...

When I was a freshman in college I took Egyptian Religion and Culture with a fabulous professor. The next quarter I took Intro to Islam with the same professor. This professor became my advisor and one of my mentors. Reading the Qu'ran, Rumi's poems, learning about Karbala, and just everything made me fall in love with this culture and religion. I am not interested in converting- but I feel like the Islamic world can very well be a beautiful one, and that it is very misunderstood by so-called Islamists and other ignorant people. My professor is my role model- he has spent his life travelling, writing books, getting first hand experience, and then teaching about what he's learned to eager students. That is what I want to do with my life. It is such a treat to me even that Zackery has learned Arabic, so we can share something so special like that, and that he has had an amazing experience interacting with Iraqis in Al Qaim. His war experience is completely different than what I expected it to be. The field for people with graduate degrees in Arabic and Islam is huge- I could get a job for a company that has contractors in the Middle East, a job with a government, many organizations, and of course with unversities. I myself am Middle Eastern, and since I am also Mexican I have been able to learn a lot more about my Mexican heritage, so it is a real treat to be able to delve into the Middle Eastern world. Last year in England taking a religious studies class I came to the realization that I could literally learn about religions for the rest of my life and be happy, and I feel so blessed that this is an option for me.

A lot of people don't understand what I am trying to do here, including some members of my family. I can't explain the draw that religion has to me, the cultural and societal aspects, the theology of it all, the origins, the spirituality of it, but I just think it's so important that at least some of us are being students of religions instead of just proponents of one and opposers to another. I love my religion- I am Catholic- I love my spiritual beliefs, but I am incredibly of the shortcomings of the man-made aspects of all religions. Religion is an incredibly powerful thing, and whether people like it or not we are all affected by it. I'm just one of those people that is going to purposefully put myself in the controversy of it all, and I don't mind one bit.