The whole month of January was filled with designs, construction paper, posters, and student-involved projects. When I was told that I would be decorating the library for Black History Month, I was jumping for joy, but I was even more serious about the job that I had been given, especially after admiring last year's display and having ideas for my own, knowing I was in charge this year made me feel like it was a dream come true. The vision I had was perfect and it was coming out as perfect as I imagined it: a young black girl with her hands up showing a poster of the black teachers and another showing inspirational figures who inspired the students at the school. The girl was done and the teachers' posters were as well, all that was left was the poster of inspiration. The display was already loud: green, red, and yellow in bold font and large bulletin panels. However, the inspiration poster was going to be the cherry on top of the cake, no, it was going to be the sparkly fireworks that lit up the sky on the fourth of July. Except this Fourth of July party had been put out when the teachers told me it might be taken down. The reason was that it might “offend” students and it was too “controversial”. A big poster of a large fist with bold words saying “Black Power” in red, green, and yellow with a picture of Stokely Carmicheal was a good idea when making it, but after thinking about how I attended a primarily white school where you could barely talk about diverse history in history class made me realize I should have thought more about my decision on the design of the poster. Even though I was so furious, smoke came from my ear and I wanted nothing more than to come to school the next day, boombox in arms blasting “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy, it wouldn’t make a difference and the best shot would be to redo the poster. It was the last few days of January. I had to come up with a different design, poster, and idea. It seemed hopeless until a magical bird and amazing writer came to mind, Maya Angelou and her poem “And Still I Rise”. My new poster was a red, green, and yellow phoenix rising from the ashes transforming into inspirational figures with quotes from black artists. When Black History Month began the display came out better than I imagined it would, and whenever classmates ask me about the old poster I just smile and explain how my old poster couldn’t be used, but it didn’t matter, I got something better out of it.

The number of books there is like every grain of sand in the sea, and picking just one book is like trying to pick up one grain of sand. Picking a book was like the challenge of picking up one grain of sand, but in the end, my answer came to “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. First, I must mention the book of my religion, the Quran, was my original first choice, however, due to religion being an agonizing topic for some people I decided to change to my second choice, but I could answer this question without mentioning the book of my religion. “Brave New World '' by Aldous Huxley is a strange science fiction book that takes place in dystopian England. In a world where humans are created to obey a higher order and an odd system, a natural-born human from a tribal land named James gets the opportunity to explore this “Brave New World” and is shocked to discover how a progressing civilization can be so off balance. The book itself is very amazing and memorable, not just for its story, but its attention-capturing style of a gray world filled with deformed people with a new eerie language and mind-boggling customs. The story and style are, however, just a small portion of what makes the book deserves to be read by the whole world. It's Aldous Huxley’s entertainingly exaggerated prediction of the future and the theme being society shouldn’t evolve so much and stay where it is and if we go further we, as a people of society, may be doomed to be both controlled and subjected to horrifying customs. Even if the theme and novel seem too exaggerated for a depiction of the future, the book is an interesting dive into another world.

In the center of all the buildings on the busy street in the middle of the city lies a masjid, a place of worship for Muslims of all ages, sex, and color. A small building with Islamic decorations lined everywhere inside. So small it only fits one kitchen, a praying space that fits no more than thirty people, and a sofa in the lobby. Such a small building with so much love. The old masjid consisted of not individuals, but families gathered together to worship. Every argument stayed within and was resolved shortly and everyone was invited with big ear-to-ear smiles and kindness bright enough to light up the city at night. A place that put paradise right on earth, but I was much too young to know that this paradise would soon cease to exist and that I could do scarcely anything about it. All my visits there as a little girl were welcoming, it would be fun playing with the other children in the masjid even if I were the only girl. It wasn’t until the trips became oddly longer and announcements that I was too ignorant to listen to were being made and soon enough there were no more trips to this masjid. I never questioned it because as a child it was a magical home my Mother and Father took me to that just disappeared. This crushed my spirit, but not my faith. My faith grew as tall as sunflowers and I prayed every night. I would mention my lord, Allah in almost every conversation and bring up my religion at every chance and little did I know that all these actions influenced the very people who taught it to me. When I became older I asked my Father what came of the old masjid and that is when he told me that it didn’t leave because it was magic. It left because the people who bought it had been dying off and the rest of the families who paid for it were struggling, so they had to let it go. I could hear the harshness in my father's voice telling me this and how much he loved it. My eyes became watery as the cold truth of reality was being told to me and when my Father could see this he told me something that still shocks me to this day. He told me that when the masjid was lost his faith became low, but after seeing me at such a young age proudly show off my faith and dedicate myself to it, it helped him with his. That’s when tears started to drip down my face. The masjid might have not had magic, but it certainly was filled with faith and love, two traits that most certainly stayed with me.

Growing up I’ve always been the blue butterfly in a field full of orange ones amongst my peers due to my religious views and different clothing, but my childhood wasn’t horrendous due to being different. Islam is what made me the person I am now. It was the constant reading of the Quran and hadiths that made me intelligent from the morals and lessons it taught me. The rules of Islam had given me self-control and confidence in all my decisions and actions. I became so dedicated to my religion that I attended my father’s Islamic classes, helped in my local masjid and did live videos with my dad on Islam and what I learned and how other girls could benefit from it and the most heartwarming part of me was giving them confidence on wearing the hijab. My life made a turning point once I moved from the city to the suburbs. I believed that my new school would obtain other Muslim girls that were like me so I wouldn’t be the only blue butterfly anymore, but that was nothing more than a dream because most of the Muslim girls wanted nothing to do with me. I didn’t let this get to me and continued to be myself even if it was a lonely path which eventually led me to the school library where I met three kind librarians who gave me confidence for being who I am from their kind words, bubbly personalities, and good conversations. The three librarians inspired me through all their dedication to their work to be in the information science field which introduced me to the job of being a medical librarian. I wanted to pursue being a medical librarian because the job of finding, analyzing, as well as accessing information for helping patients and students spoke to me. This job connected to me because I have always loved to help others and I was always an organized person so the job was like combining two things I enjoyed doing into being the perfect job. Before the epiphany of wanting to be a medical librarian, and planning on majoring in computer science and getting a Bachelor's degree in Library Science. I put myself on a pedestal of believing that college was only for snobby students with great grades and perfect lives. Believing these assumptions were only to cover the fact that although I had a lot of confidence, I truly believed that I had no chance in college and would never be accepted or the best student. These beliefs slowly faded from my mind after I put in the dedication and work for college. The realization hit me that college was for everyone and its purpose was to give everyone a higher education that would help their future. I joined a volunteer organization, worked harder in school, and tried to do the best I could with every challenge and task that approached. The determination has helped me push myself to the best of my ability and it made me open my eyes to see that it was okay to be the blue butterfly because it makes you stronger and if I put the determination into my dreams I will not only go far and succeed, but continue to be determined on everything I do.