About this blog, eh?

The Idea

I’ve wanted to start a blog ever since taking junior English my final semester at UMD (shout out to ENGL398R!) That class about narrative nonfiction gave me an appreciation and a great respect for writing and publishing as a craft. I wanted to get in on the game, but since it is really hard to get published (and I don’t have the time/skill to do so) I thought I would take my talents to the place where anything goes. No, not a Richard Simmons photo-shoot… the internet, silly! (I apologize for that one, but sometimes bad jokes make me smile.) Though I might be a little late to the blogging party, I figured someone’s gotta be bored enough to read what will eventually be an extension of my Facebook statuses. Which brings me to my next point, the audience…

The Audience

Good ol’ ENGL398R taught me that all good writing keeps in mind the rhetorical triangle of purpose, context, and audience. The purpose was explained briefly above, the context is simply my life, and that brings us to the audience, or you! I assume from the get-go that most of you are some mix of friend, acquaintance, or enemy, so I want to cater to you, my like-minded insomniacs, as best I can. On the off-chance there are strangers here as well I hope that they too can enjoy, learn, or laugh with us also. Secretly, however, I’m also writing this blog for my own benefit. One because I’m that vain and two because I think it’d be cool to one day read through all the stuff I write here and show it to my kids so they know what their dad was like in his rocking 20’s.

The Execution

So how to get it done, then? Well I’m still working on my own style – my voice as a writer, if you will – but I have a few ground-rules in mind:

First, I plan to speak only about what I know and have learned through personal experience. This blog hinges on my late-night reflections about what has happened personally in my life. I don’t claim to have experienced anything too grand at age 21, but then again I don’t think a 60 year old has any more right to speak of their experiences. There is always more to explore and reflect upon. No matter what age, our experiences are defined by how we understand them and we are defined by how our experiences shape us.

Second, I plan to try and keep all posts and pages relatively short (around 500 words) so people don’t lose interest. Someone once said brevity is the soul of wit, and in the interest of keeping things short I won’t look up that person’s name for you. Just kidding, it was Shakespeare.

Third, since most of you probably do in some capacity know me, I’ll try and add things that are likely relevant to our common experience in this life. AKA I have added some extras like lists of movies, books, and video games I want to start, some creative writing, my experience at Hajj iA (coming soon), pictures, etc. Just more things to try and entertain the myriad of viewers I’m expecting (just kidding, I want to make the four of you who actually read this happy.)

Finally, I sincerely hope you do enjoy whatever it is you find on this page. I am working semi-hard to produce coherent posts and I want you to get something out of them, or at least to find it within yourselves to start reflecting more on your own life. So there, I hope this blog entertains you, tickles your funny bone, then makes you laugh, or even makes you cry . Whatever it is, enjoy your stay and happy reflecting 🙂

– Naj

And a bit about me…

Well, if you’ve made it this far then you must really want to know about me.. I can’t blame you, but hey being the humble (aka ill-equipped to talk about myself) guy I’ll do the best I can.

Baltimore county born and raised, in front of a TV is where I spent most of my days. I went to a private high school, St. Paul’s, famous for it’s lax and um, well I guess that’s it lax and an overwhelming majority of white people. So true, but I did love it there. For college I spent 4 wonderful years at the University of Maryland as a Psych major and Neuroscience/Spanish minor. Now my studies have brought me to George Washington medical school.

Beyond school I enjoy pretty normal things – gaming, movies, sports, blah, travel, reading, blah blah… you get the point. I will mention though that I’m a big Ravens fan, struggling Wizards fan, and non-existent Orioles fan (it’s  baseball…) An interesting factoid for putting up with all this fluff, I used to step in high school. Not just walking either, but you know the whole Stomp the Yard kind of stepping.

Anyway to the most important stuff – I am Muslim and Islam has influenced all aspects of my life, especially recently Alhamdulillah (all thanks and praise be to God.) Inevitably this blog will also draw a lot (like a lot, a lot) from my Muslim upbringing as I continue to learn about my own religion and the things that other people ascribe to. Also, I am Pakistani-American, or American-Pakistani depending on how you want to look at it, so I’m in tune with some of the vonderful things hailing from the subcontinent (gup-shup, chai, using powder instead of deodorant, etc.)

Well that’s about it for the about me, click on some other stuff now!