The Real World

Negativity.

It threatens to engulf our minds. It is present when you turn on the television. Open up a book. Pick up the telephone.

We've trained our minds to predict bad news. Yet the bad news still ruins our days and the good news never shocks us. We resent good news. It is never enough for us. A teacher will never email your parents to tell them you are an individual with good character. They will email your parents because your fourth marking period average has taken a dip.

We live in a society where a polite person is met with raised eyebrows. But we can't stop talking about the lady who was rude to us at work today. No matter how many have been kind, the ones who have been less than it always make a bigger impression on us.

Do you ever want to scream "That does not make me any less of a person!"?

As teenagers, it often seems like the only thing we can is tear down the nice people we used to be when we were young. People automatically assume the worse. We will never be able to build character until we are at least 23 years old.  Our years are shrouded with negativity and judgement. Yet the answer is always "Kids these days!". Well, guess what? The adults built the world that teenagers live in today. The mistrust of adults is the reason I can't go into a boutique without the owners watching me like a hawk. Because I'm in high school, I'm deemed untrustworthy. As arrogant. As spoiled. 

"You don't know what the real world is like".

What the heck is the real world? Is it one full of prejudice and dishonesty? Is it a selfish one? If the real world is like the atrocities and the hate I hear about on the news, I do not like the real world. We are told the sky is our limit when we are in elementary school, but then people look at us like we are crazy when we are in high school for admitting the things we dream of.

Why is the cutoff age for dreams ten years old?

I am not stupid. I am not immature. I am not a child. I am not an adult. I am my own person. My mistakes do not define me. My brightest moments do. The things that make me smile define me. The things that make me feel alive define me. Because you know what? I listen to classical music. And dance music. 

My real world is my world. The way I see it. What I do in it. Plain and simple.

Yours the ever dramatic,

-Hamna

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow...

The Penguins lost. Ray Shero got fired. Bylsma is expected to follow.

Would it be wrong to say I expected them to lose?

Every year, there are teams that seem unbeatable. Their intensity is unbreakable. And this year that team was not the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Why you ask? Inconsistency. A lack of effort on some days and too much on others. Overconfidence. And most importantly, a lack of love.

The New York Rangers had Martin St. Louis's grief to rally around. The LA Kings had their pride. The Chicago Blackhawks had their cup. The Habs had Canada.

The Penguins were supposed to fight for Marc-André Fleury. It was supposed to be their season of redemption. Their season to show how much they would do for each other. How much they loved each other.

We watch our sports because of the brotherhood it shows. For me, in a way, it is a consistent show of how much humans can still love each other.

In a world with so much darkness and negativity, it gives us something to cheer for. People to share joy with. Because when they win, we win too. That is OUR team. They are "us". You are a part of that team.

Penguins Shirt Day...I need a Fleury one.

Let me make one thing clear, the Pittsburgh Penguins are still MY team. James Neal and all. But, if the get rid of Flower, I will cry and disown until the season starts next year.

When I'm filled with hope and happiness once again.

For now, Go Habs! (Because I might be able to get to Montréal for a Stanley Cup Parade)

Canada deserves a cup!

And Go James Reimer and the rest of Team Canada at Worlds!

-Hamna

Because it's Hamna in a flower crown and a Malkin shirt...

Silver Linings

Contrasts and ironies never cease to amaze me.

It is incredible to me how the wealthiest parts of a city are only steps away from the roughest parts. The way people write "Save Trees!" on sheets of paper that were made by cutting down trees. When college dropouts are the guest speakers at college graduations...

I can't even...

It also amazes me how one person's happiness means another's sadness.

As I watched the LA Kings (You had to know this was going towards hockey) win their series and shake hands with the San Jose Sharks, I realized that the center ice line separated two very different emotions. The LA Kings win meant that the San Jose Sharks would lose yet another playoff series. Their elation was heartbreak to the San Jose Sharks.

And it got me thinking...everything on this planet is bittersweet.

One person's acceptance into their safety schools is another person's rejection from their dream school. The success of one business often means the failure of another. Every year added onto your life is another one closer to death.

There is a negative side to everything.

But there is also a silver lining.

And I suppose the silver lining is what we live for. 

High School sucks 80% of the time. The other 20% rocks.

Hard work is hard, but we do anyway because we are working towards something. We may not know what it is, but we know there is something. And the second there is nothing, you know you are in trouble.

We live for recognition. We live to have something to look forward to because according to Anne Shirley, that's half the fun.  We live to work.

The silver lining is a human being's purpose on this planet. Because without that purpose, we are lost boats at sea.

Everyone grows up wanting their purpose to be changing the world. But how? What can we do that someone else has not done? What makes extraordinary? When do we figure it out?

It's why we connect to books and literature. We love The Fault in Our Stars because they may be a hot mess, but Augustus and Hazel have it figured out. They have the infinity they crave. The deeper level of understanding they have for life. And themselves.

Do you ever wonder if the people around are deeper than they appear? Do you ever really know your peers? What drives them to do what they do and want what they want? What makes them cry? Or laugh? What gives them goosebumps? Who are they? And what do they think of who you are?

We want to be the ones with the quotes that people recite for generations. The ones that everyone will remember. But we must hurt people to do so...And that's the hard part.

What makes a human extraordinary? What makes our thoughts and voices worthy of being immortal?

That's a lot of questions on my part.

-Hamna

Empathy and Sympathy

Kindness.

It's a virtue.

It's considered to be an important character trait.

It's thrown around constantly by everyone.

"Oh, she's so nice."

I'd like to think I am a kind person. (I am Canadian after all). Yet, sometimes it is so much easier to be mean. Often, I find the people I admire have the defining characteristic of being strong, not kind. Is strength more important than being kindness? In order to be strong and have some substance, there are times where you have to be mean. But is that really being mean? Is kindness a weakness? Is compassion necessary? What makes a person truly kind? Is what they do or how they feel inside?

"But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."- Rachel Dawes, Batman Begins, 2005

Was she right? What does define you? What make you a good person and what makes you evil?

My psychology piece for the day...



-Hamna

And So-Goodnight…(The Mental Breakdown That Began This Blog)

You would not be wrong to say that Isra and I cannot make a decision to save our lives.

(Seriously, if a song comes up on my iTunes and I don't want to listen to it, it's practically finished by the time a pick another to put on.)

One of my favourites...

When one of us wants to do something, it's a miracle if the other person will actually want to do it at the same time. So, as you can imagine, when it was time to name this "blog", we couldn't pick a single name. We had pages full of different names. Most of them were lame. Others were heartfelt, yet anyone else would think they were lame. Most of them came from different books and quotes.

I adore Anne of Green Gables because I adore PEI. My favourite character would probably be Walter, Anne's son. The most beautiful, poetic, innocent and just deep person I know. I know him. I love him. He's an image of idealism and someone who just loves beauty. At the conclusion of the series, Walter dies a death on battered, blood-stained battlefield in France. That broke my heart. He leaves a letter for his sister, affectionately named Rilla-my-Rilla (say it out loud, it sounds lovely). I've read this letter more than a dozen times. Yet as I read it, looking for inspiration in a title, I started to cry.

He's amazing... 

I'm talking about the kind of tears that shake your body and make your eyes sore. Isra was sitting next to me. As I read, she told me to stop crying and took it from and then she started reading. Low and behold, she started sobbing too. We both sat there and read Walter Blythe's last words out loud. And cried.

I'm still not sure why we cried so hard.

Maybe it was the way someone so filled with beauty could die that way. Or because he's not real. Or that he thinks life is harder than death. Because it's not just a book. It's a story. And stories are what make us who we are. Without them, we're not human.

I've had those moments more times than I count. The absolutely paralyzing ideas that come into your mind. That make you question everything. That make you feel overwhelmed with guilt or sadness. And you have absolutely no idea why.

Then we realized that L.M Montgomery was really depressed. And naming a blog after something that made us cry so much wasn't a good idea.

So there it is. My emotional-for-no-reason teenager moment of the day. It felt good. And bad. Yay!

-Hamna

P.S. The playoffs start on Wednesday. Excited and very nervous!

Kindred Spirits

Welcome to Dum Vivimus, Vivamus!

It means "While we live, let us live…"

WHO WE ARE: Isra and Hamna: Canadian expats, sisters with different last names that are fully related by blood, and kindred spirits that go to high school in the armpit of America.

WHERE WE COME FROM: Born in Pakistan. Home is a little island cradled by the waves on the east coast of Canada. Now we live in a small town in New Jersey, of all places.

OCCUPATION: Almost college student and whiny high school freshman. Daughters and sisters. Canadians. Full-time hockey fans with a soft spot for goalies. Professional "I-will-do-it-laterers". Coldplay listeners. Emotional criers. Hipsters and Prepsters. Honorary Scandinavians (in our hearts).

WHAT WE DREAM ABOUT: Success. Happiness. Peace. Compassion. Fulfillment. Knowledge. Prestige. Magic. Miracles. Imperfect Perfection. And dreams, of course.

WHY WE STARTED THIS BLOG: One night, at one o'clock at night, we were just like, "Hey, let's start a blog".  We wanted to write about the most random things that make our lives what they are. And so we did.

Isra (the almost College student)

Nickname: "Schrabsy"
Often Seen: Sleeping, Procrastinating, Watching T.V, Computer, Reading, Eating, Learning, Squinting
Favourites: Bed, The Word "NO", Coldplay, Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter, Crosby of the Penguins, Instrumental Music, War Horse, Food, Sugar and CHOCOLATE (deserves its own category), Science, Geek culture, Watches, Model UN, Trivia, Family
Ambitions: To become someone who does something worthwhile (hopefully in the health field)
Fun Fact: I can speak three languages (Middle school, the most traumatic time of everyone's life, was something I had to do entirely in French)

Hamna (the whiny Freshman)

Nickname: Hamna (I give everyone else nicknames)
Often Seen: Pretending to be a "runner" and a "yogi", Playing Candy Crush (Level 209 and counting), Touching my hair, Doing laundry, Watching T.V, Pretending to be a decent tennis player, Organizing, Showering
The soundtrack to my life would be "Your Hand In Mine" by Explosions In the Sky
Favourites: Baking, Molten Lava Cakes, Team Canada, Pittsburgh Penguins, Eugenie Bouchard, Roger Federer, Coldplay, Fashion (Prepster all the way), Hipster Glasses, Pride & Prejudice, Period Dramas, Pearl Earring, FRUIT, my one dimple, Family
Ambitions: Conflicting ones (Being a good person, though)
Fun Fact: I have a Canadian accent, eh?

If we've managed to intrigue you about our boring selves at all, keep reading...