About

I think for now I might just toss up some of my first post in anticipation of some nostalgia:

‘Hi/salaam. I’m a recent(ish) college graduate and recent(ish) convert to Islam. Hence the name of the blog. By all accounts, I should be considered a “yuppie” at this point in my life: twenty-five, capped-and-gowned, reasonably intelligent….ah, if only it were that simple. The reality is that the term “muppie” applies to me only in the loosest sense. I’m Muslim, sure, but technically I’m not exactly employed. Not gainfully. Not like I imagined, in days of textbook-laden yore.

Hitting my mid-twenties like a stuffed bunny against a brick wall has made me realize several things…and wish, above all, that someone had told me the inevitability of postgraduate letdown.

I can’t help but think, “If I had only known….” But then again, known what? What would I have done differently? I’ve spent most of my life charging ahead at whatever it is that I want without much regard for wisdom, prudence, or patience. There’s not much reason to believe that my 18-22-year-old self would have really taken it to heart if someone had pulled me out of Chem 11 and whispered: Just fyi, life is going to be a black hole of confusion and poverty after you graduate. After all, my fancy-pants liberal arts college gave me every reason to believe that I would be shoulders and heads above the other struggling post-grads. In short, I thought the world would hand itself to me on a platter. Oh, how foolish I was.

I’m stumbling: towards faith, towards a temp agency that will take me (take that, ego), towards becoming a better person, towards explaining my transformation from a postmodern-feminist/superliberal/secularist to a practicing Sunni Muslim. [note: I wouldn’t consider myself to be not a feminist, or a liberal, at this point. I’m only a former secularist. But we’ll get into that.]‘

Since I am a convert, and since I see myself, in so many ways, as a normal (then again, what does that even mean?) twentysomething, but sometimes feel that a fair understanding of Islam is the farthest thing from “the American mind”, I’ll be dealing mostly with subjects that, in one way or another, attempt to bridge the gap. It’s a small effort, but everything starts small. The Muslims are my people, and Americans are my tribe. I’d just like everyone to get along, and I think we can learn how. I think we can put Islamophobia to bed. I’ll do my part….just read, comment, enjoy.

I can be reached at muppiechronicles@gmail.com