Where I'm From

I am from bicycles, from Harley and Schwinn.

I am from the big red house near the pool.

I am from the rocky backyard hill, which is all brown and covered with rocks, the king palms, that have beautiful, sharp leaves.

I am from three day weddings and straight, black hair, from Alia and light skin and Toor.

I am from the feuds and the expenisve dinners at lavish five star restaurants.
From "You should be a doctor," and "your the heir."

I'm from Pakistan, intense chocolate mints and red hot gum.

I am from the piles of family photos in the drawers and on the bookshelf.

I'm from the family that sometimes wakes up early to pray since its one of the pillars.

From the fights over maturity which always end up with me involved, the screaming parents, and the card games my uncles always win.

Japan Disaster Story

     The silence was finally broken. Even from 10 miles away from the shoreline, the barely audible sounds of waves crashing onto the beach was heard. I quickly got into my capacious car and made one quick out the window to see the sky was no longer azure, but a deep gray. I drove as fast as possible to avoid any oncoming disaster, but alas, I was to late. I was quickly preceded by two cars when I began to decelerate when out of the blue, it started raining. It felt as if we were going to be deluged in it. On my way to home, I felt a sudden pang when I realized we lived close to shore. As I raced through Fukushima, I noticed that the tree next to me was shaking, at first confused, I quickly realized my worst nightmare is coming true-we were experiencing a earthquake.

     I quickly got out of the car and ran as fast as the wind to the fish market nearby and hid underneath the table. The room was filled with copious amounts of fish which caused it to have a horrid, revolting smell. Realizing how crucial this time was, I grabbed some fish and stuffed them into my coat. I then took off my shirt and grabbed some more fish to put into it just incase we needed more rations. As the shaking stopped, I walked outside to see a junkyard in what used to be the park.
    
     Being  a fastidious person, I looked around slowly and carefully for anything that will help me carry the fish but found nothing. I also noticed a black sedan underneath a fridge and couch. Knowing that my family made a plan incase of disasters just like this, I figured that I should make my way to the hill a few blocks away from the house as it was the highest area for miles. Being adept to noticing small details, I managed to find the hill following buried signs that were once available for eyes to see.

     Our neighbors were also on the top of the hill along with a few other families from the cul-de-sac. We knew we were going to be up here for a while, so we decided to banter around for a while. I tried to facilitate the time we were up here by passing around the board games that my wife brought for the kids but it did no good.

      As the sky cleared, we all decided it would be best if we stayed up here for a while and as soon as we agreed, came the sounds of water crashing from everywhere. Just as I had seen in movies, it was a tsunami, I thought Japan would never see one but I was wrong. As cars and boats collided in the water, trees were ripped out of the ground, people were screaming for their lives. But we knew better, we could do nothing. we were trapped up here like sitting goose and were going to stay up here. As the waters ravaged our rooms and killed our people, we were watching in horror and disgust.

Looking for a Fight

Looking For a Fight

Reviewed by Saad T.

Lynn Snowden’s book entitled Looking for a Fight, is a captivating, emotional story about a young woman named Lynn trying to find a way to let go of her anger. The story has somewhat a form of suspense and is filled with humorous quotes. Lynn soon feels the need prove to her friends and family that she can take care of herself. She also learns that once learned, violence cannot be forgotten.

The story starts off with Lynn, a marathon runner who just finished the New York Marathon, telling about her divorce and how her friends and family feel she is vulnerable; in reality, they are just trying to take care of her as she just got through a divorce but her anger gets the best of her. She decides the best way to let go of her anger is to take up boxing, and that’s what she does. After learning a bit more about it, she tries to get into the gym Gleasons, a world renowned boxing gym known for training champions such as Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson. As she goes into the gym, she gets a new perspective of boxing, what she thought would be an easy way to relieve pressure turns out to be the challenge of her life. As she notices that the rings have spots of blood, the boxers are moving at inhuman speeds, and that the training are going at each other at full force, she realizes this place isn’t for cowards.

After getting a trainer, who is a Hispanic named Hector with a thick accent; she proves she is up to the challenge of going into a real fight to face off an opponent. As Hectors training proves to be tough, she shows she isn’t ready to give up despite all the bruises, blisters, and scars she gets. She learns the reason behind Hector’s tough training is due to the fact he is a past winner of the Golden Gloves, a boxing tournament where boxers from all over come face to face in a brawl to see who gets crowned champion.

As the story progresses, you learn more about her life and begin to understand her view of the world. She soon starts to have health problems for unknown reasons. Her body starts to respond to hr training as her legs become more muscular, her back becomes more profound, and her stomach becomes harder. After months of training and multiple visits to the doctor, the week of her big fight finally shows up and after she win, she quits due to her not feeling right about boxing.

All in all, the book is great. The story is well written and shows how complicated and difficult it can be to face your fears. The way she describes her opponents’ jabs to her feel so intense and life like, you can practically feel them. The training starts to affect her life as well since she develops a “hit not think” reflex that reacts never she is nervous. It can get a bit boring at times since the chapter to chapter recounts of her sparring become monotonous, but it soon picks up the pace with hard hitting action. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into the depth of the human mind to see how far one would go to prove they have a place in this world.