So the academic year has finally ended and thank God it did! I got my papers in on time and I feel like I did pretty good on my exams…we’ll see about that! The day after finals ended, as president of the student government, I was in charge of putting together the annual “International Dinner”. It turned out well, but man am I glad its over. It was held at a museum and consisted of a long presentation over a 3-course meal and open bar.

But first I had to attend to a high school friend who got into that morning. If my hands weren’t already full, you can imagine how I felt! I had to leave her and her boyfriend and relatives at my flat as I headed to the museum to make sure everything was cool…and it was. Come 7 o’clock I had to the usual diplomatic greetings and accompany the keynote speaker and other special guests from England…whew, that was tiring considering I was stuck with juice while everyone was able to begin the night drinking.

I started the presentations a little after 8pm and then we had the first meal. I then introduced the keynote speaker and was more than surprised at his talk. He was extremely loud and entertaining to say the least. I couldn’t help but bust out laughing a few times…and you all know how loud my laughter can be. That finally ended and then we had our main course and then had our award presentations from our acting-dean and myself and then proceeded to desert. I finished up the presentations and by this time it was after 11pm and everybody was already completely drunk, including students, faculty, staff, and guests…except for me. I wasted no time and went straight to that open bar and let the flood gates open. The night turned out to be amazing as my hangover from Sunday could prove and all the above pictures. The year was an amazing one and I’m sad its over, but all good things must come to an end. Now I have to turn to my dissertation and get that taken care of so I can graduate! As its been going, I have been constantly changing my topic and it seems like its now on political Islam and how it has taken the role as the lead opposition against secular parties throughout the region thereby giving many different implications to how the development of democracy is playing out and hopefully giving insight on how Western governments can approach the region that has been plagued with conflict. I’m looking forward to it so hopefully I’ll stick with this one!

Also, I was offered a job in Baltimore as Program Director for US-Muslim Relations for an organization that has the sole duty to educate young American minds about the world outside the US, which I will most likely accept. This position directly applies to my interests, area of “expertise” (I put it in quotes since I am far from an expert), and my drive to educate others on the fundamental similarities of other people, especially Muslims and their core values and morals that are no different than Christians and Jews and any other religion, including atheists and agnostics. I think the most hurtful and common misunderstanding between humans is the view that other people have malicious intentions to hurt others when it is really a misunderstanding; my goal in life is to ensure others learn that we are all rational people and therefore moral as an individual. Once we can all understand that, we will all be better off…