Inspirations

Dreams and Aspirations

No Hair, don't care...

So hair is a huge thing, I guess.  When I was younger I sometimes hated dealing with my hair because I never learned to do it myself. My older sister did my hair the majority of the time in braids or my mother would pull it back in a big ponytail, big braids, or the dreaded puffs.

Colorism: Racism between Blacks in America

Daily Tune Day 3: Remain Nameless by Florence + The Machine

This is one of my favorite songs off of Florence + The Machine's second album, Ceremonials.

Turkish Lango Lesson

So although I learned the bare minimum amount of Turkish I could while living in Istanbul for 2 months, all those words were absolutely vital for getting around. I want to preserve the amount that I did learn. So I'm writing all the words I learned just in case I one day make it back there!
First word I learned was 'merhaba' which means 'hello' and the second was teşekkürler (te-shek-yu-lar) which means 'thank you.' So obviously it's like my third day
there and I think 'yeah, cool. I'm a pro at this' so all of school mates go down to this local corner store to check
 it out and buy snacks and I'm the last person to purchase anything(standard). And as I'm pick up my bag I say 
'hello' to the cashier rather than 'thank you' and I try to correct myself and apologize (in English like he knew
what I was saying)before anyone notice except the whole family that owned the store heard my blunder even
 the baby and my schoolmates and everyone busted out laughing. Humiliated, I booked it out of there, so that
was cool.  
    Hmm other words that came in handy? 'yok,' pronounced 'yoke' which means 'no,' used that a lot to ward 
off creepy men. 'Evet' (ev-vet)  which is 'yes.' And random but we ate a whole lot of bread with is a huge com-
ponent of Turkish meals and I couldn't get enough especially with oil and ground pepper and my kids loved me 
for whenever I got it for them for lunch, is 'ekmek.' Water, which I'm not a huge fan of but had to get in special 
places since their tap water is not very clean is called 'su'(sood). And then 'food' is 'yemek' and whenever we order 
online which saved our lives we would have to call down to the gate and say 'yemek geliş' (gili-yosh, s' with tildaes
make the 'sh' sound) which means 'food is coming' to the security guards and then we would feign like we knew wh
-at they were saying back and say 'EVET' and then hang up the phone. 'çok' means 'very' which we use from time to time especially when they didn't think you understand Turkish like 'çok sexy' they ate that up, thought it was hilarious. Also, I learned the word 'öldü' which I figured out the translation without much help , it means 'died,' can guess how I figured that one out? Two words, Amy Winehouse. I was eating in a mall and it was turned to their Turkish CNN and it kept flashing her face on the news and the word 'öldü' and I turned to my friend and said 'I think Amy Winehouse is dead' which she didn't believe until we got back to campus. Oh and soup was 'çorba' (chorba) which is the same as in Arabic but with a 'sh' sound and that was always served with dinner, I don't know if that was the school tradition or a Turkish one either way, I liked it. And chicken was 'tavuk,' and 'fried' was 'kızarmış' (ku-zarmish, the Turks have to 'I's in their language one with a dot and one with it and the 'i' with the dot is pronounced like the English but the one without sounds more like a 'u.')
   Also, the Turks speak in non-verbal ways which is normal in a guess in Eastern traditions especially in the Middle East. The kids would do this a lot instead of saying 'yes' or 'no,' they use their movement of their eyes, head and tongue. For instance, if you ask them a question like if they want something to eat, in response they might blink their eyes very quickly which means 'yes.' Or, if they don't want anything to eat they will nod their head up very quickly and cluck their tongue like their sucking their teeth which is taken as rude in the U.S. but just means  'no' and is a culture norm. After a while the kids had me doing too, thought it was awesome like a secret language but at the same time it confused the shit out of me at times.

Quote of the Day (2): Her life changed dramatically...

"Her life changed dramatically when she decided to break the rules and find beauty where she'd been told there was none."-Couldn't Make It Out

Tune of the Day (2): Coming Closer by Sub Focus featuring Takura

This song plays everyday at work and each time I gotta dance.

Quote of Day(1): So we were told

‎"So we were told to put on their make-up and wear their short skirts. Instructed to give our lives, our bodies, our dignity for the cause of being pretty. We came to believe that no matter what we did, we were worthy only to the degree that we could please and be beautiful for men. So we spent our lives on the cover of Cosmo and we gave our bodies for advertisers to sell.
We were slaves, but they taught us we were free. We were their object, but they swore it was success. Because they taught you that the purpose of your life was to be on display, to attract and be beautiful for men. They had you believe that your body was created to market their cars.
But they lied."-Yasmin Mogahed

Sheryl Sandberg On Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders

 Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook speaks at TEDWomen about why the leadership of men and women in the workforce is disproportionate even though more women are graduating from college than men. Gives 3 pointers, (1) Sit at the table-have the confidence to reach for opportunities, (2) Make your partner a real partner--share responsibilities at home so you and your partner can both pursue careers; and (3) don't leave before you leave--challenge yourself at work so that when you have a decision to make, there are compelling reasons to comeback or stay. Amen!

Daily Tune Day 1: Lights-Ellie Goulding, Bassnectar Remix

One of my passions is music and no, I don't mean making it. I mean discovering and listening to it and starting now I will present to you (as often as I can) music that inspires me. Songs may be current, recent or old but one thing they'll have in common is that it's good shit. I don't discriminate, I love music, simple as that whether it be hip-hop, dubstep, rock, indie, rap, pop, alternative, you name I listen to it. I may post a song, music video and maybe a description of some sort. So sit back and press play.

Getting my shit together.

I, Atiyyah N. Sabir do solemnly swear to get my shit together and write more on this blog. I spend so much time on tumblr that I have neglected you. I promise to begin to express myself in words rather in just photos and gifs. Plus, I have the time since I'm taking the semester off. HOOO, didn't know that, now did ya.

So I did it

I finally decided to take a leave of absence from school for the fall semester. This is completely out the blue so it seems to you and I both. The reason being that from here on out, I will be the one paying for my college education, not my parents and it's frustrating because the government are not considering that fact. The price tag of going to my school is a little bit more than half of a $100,000 and they expect me to pay

7 Weeks in, 1 Week Out

Been in this city that truly doesn't sleep for almost 2 months and now I have a week to go, unfortunately. What's even worse is that it's been so hectic and I've been a bit lazy that I'm pretty sure this is only my second entry since I've been here. Istanbul is seven hours ahead of the east coast of the United States so when I'm waking up for work, all of my friends are knocking out for the night which can be a little frustrating. So what have you missed, hmmm, orientation, first session, trips to the Grand Bazaar, Spice/Egyptian Bazaar, the "Asian side," partying in Taksim, a sisterly pow-wow in a hamam, crazy boat rides with the staff and unforgettable cab rides with much more in between.
 Where should I start? At the beginning, sounds reasonable. (Wrote this a while back and obviously I didn't finish it).

The City That Straddles Two Continents

You like that title, yeah I came up with it on my own, jealous? So I've been in Istanbul now for only about 4 days but it feels like longer so much has happened and I've already made so many friends. First off, I have never been so proud to rep. my school. To be honest from the moment I put the payment down to secure my spot at the school my senior year of high school, I knew it wasn't where I wanted to be. But I knew that I should keep an open mind no matter because I could be proved completely wrong. Well that's happening as we speak, there are approximately 20-30(I don't know, I'm bad with approximations) counselors and about 10, including myself that are either alumnae from my school or are current students or 2011 graduates.

(via voguelovesme)

3 More Days...

until I head to New York to catch my flight at JFK for Turkey and my room still looks like a hot mess(my mother is going to chop my head off) oui! I have yet to pack although my stuff is folded and sitting on my shelf and ready, so clap for that! Suppose to be going out to buy traveling supplies, yes I have yet to do so and some clothing items.
     Unlike expected through this whole process of applying, receiving and preparing for this job, I haven't been nervous to travel to a foreign country. I guess since I've been trying to escape this country for approximately 8 years now, I've bypassed that stage years ago not saying that it won't rears its ugly head once I make it there. But what I am petrified of is making a huge mistake or just letting my co-workers down, I hope they saw something that made KNOW that I was right for this because right now I'm not quite sure. Guess we'll see when I touch down in Istanbul.(I2ll wrıte more later, ıt,s 9:30 a.m., seven hours ahead of New York, so I2m goıng to take a nap).

Touched Down

So we made it in one piece, allhamdullah! Which ıs a total surprıse seeıng as how rıght before we got on the plane at JFK, the alarm system went off (nobody moved), then we started to see smoke rısıng from the aırplane(İ stıll donit know what that was), then the thunder and lıghtenıng rolled ın and ıt started to pour. Then they came over the loudspeaker and announced that JFK was now  "closed."  Greaaatttt! Then they suddenly started boardıng but ıt took about 2 hours before we actually took off. By the tıme we got on the flıght, I was at ease because I was wıth sıx other students from my school, 3 newbıes lıke myself and 3 returnıng who were the ones who actually selected us. Up to the getting to the aırport I refused to eat, my stomach was turnıng and every 5 seconds İ was checkıng to make sure I had my passport and tıcket(ımportant documents seem to sprout legs and walk away when needed and <ı was not havıng that), I was almost sure somethıng would hold me back from gettıng on that flıght!

But they let me through wıthout a problem, ıt was almost too easy and met up wıth everyone wıthın 3 mınutes of gettıng to the gate. Some how though on the flıght, I was separated from everyone else, I ended sıttıng next to thıs Turkısh woman and all of her sons and I chatted wıth her for a whıle. The Turks know how to fly, fırst class was fly(ıf you've seen Sex and the Cıty 2, ıt was lıke that). The flıght in total was about 9 hours and as soon as we got off the plane, it was blazing and they say ıt only gets hotter from here(Good Lawd)!

Luckıly, we had people pıckıng us up and as we drove to the campus we had a nıce vıew of the cıty. Thıs cıty ıs defınıtely a metropolıtan, huge buıldıngs everywhere and so many people and although the country ıs no longer an Islamıc country, there ıs stıll a vısıble populatıon of women who wear there scarf but I thınk a majorıty who don't. So I just caught on but the school ıs actually a hıgh school but they go by the names that the rest of Europe uses and they call college here unıversıty. But their campus ıs huge, bıgger than my college ıt seems and we2re very close the Bosphurus and the whole school ıs gated. It,2s actıually an upgrade from my school. We were one of the fırst counselors to arrıve.