New Beginnings

2016 was like riding one of the rides at Hersheypark. You didn't know when it would be an uphill climb, or a downhill, or a loop upside down. 2016 was like the storm that has been brewing for a while and it finally happened. I felt heartache in its truest meaning for the first time, and experienced many things that made me grow and flourish in ways that I never could have if I had been happy as I had in years before. This was the year I witnessed people turning their faces away from justice, and I saw how bad humans could be. But it was also the year I saw the love that people can show during the tough times. I became more socially aware and ready to fight for what I believed in, and I learned what it meant to stand by the weak. 2016 was like a boxing match that you're losing. You get one punch and you're already down, but then you get another punch that brings you even more down, and then another punch and another punch, but you don't quit. 2016 was that year when I sank lower than I ever though I would. Life kept giving me punches and I kept losing the boxing match, but I floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee when I could, to quote a great Muslim that 2016 took away from us. But the most important thing I learned from this year was to keep going and never give up, no matter what. I hope 2017 can be like the sun coming out of the clouds after the storm, the year when we rise and block all the punches headed our way. Inshaa Allah it will be that way.