I hate my name

Story of my life; I used to hate my name. Like with extreme hate. I hated it so much that I cringed everytime someone called me by "Amirah".

I used to think, "Oh the name is so common, literally you can go around and find any Amirahs from the street" and I used to really just hate it. There was no end to my hate that I started spelling my name by "Amira" and not the full "Amirah". I did ask my parents one day, "Why did you name me Amirah?" They didn't give me the answer I was looking for. Or at least I wasn't satisfied. In my defense (if I could defend myself), I was never truly satisfied by anything. There was always a fault in something so I lived in misery and agony for almost half my life.

I don't know how, I don't know when, just one day, out of nowhere, my teacher was asking us about what our names meant. I told the class, "In Arabic, my name means leader/queen/princess" Literally my name means Light of Princess. See I did not know this before and hated without question or surveying what my name really means.

And I think this applies in everyday life, in other aspects. Sometimes you hate because you don't know something. Like you hate Math because you're not good at it. Like some people hate History because it's a lot of reading and the events just seem to twist and turn (especially American History, according to my Year 8 History teacher). And you can hate it, sure. Hating is a choice. But give it a chance before you choose to religiously hate something. Give it a chance to prove itself to you. Like I didn't watch Pitch Perfect before and it seemed literally everyone but me knows and seen the cup song by Anna Kendrick. But I hated it anyway because I didn't see it and I was not bothered to give it a chance. But once I did give it a chance, I thought, "Hmm, not so bad."

And there's this cat that we named Princess (or I named it) and I gave it food and I thought, "Hmm we're actually calling her Amirah then since Princess = Amirah" Lol

Morale (or moral?) of the story is, know something before you judge it. Or as the popular saying goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Sincerely,
Amirah.

Insults 101

So an insult is basically just a word or a phrase. I know it's hard to recognize when it angers you but believe me, it is a word unless you give it power to be an insult.

Funniest thing happened to me last night, I had spent all night being okay... And happy. And this is weird coming from me, especially being thrown at with this kind of word. I think that, if you can be okay with such a word, maybe you are alright. There is no need to dwell on something that obviously means nothing to you. And that's how insults should be -- nothing. Because it does not, by all means, define who or what you are.

I think this one step will take you far. Try it sometime. Find the humour in the word and you will be okay.

Sincerely,
Someone who has never been okay before