April Stands for Art
Hello guys! It's been a long time since I posted something worth reading. Know why? I've been super busy this past month. I was hired to make illustrations for two children's books, although I won't work on the second one until May because it isn't really a priority right now. I also signed up to perform at the upcoming art festival to be held at my local masjid. I've also been asked to teach little kids ages 5+ the basics of drawing with charcoal. To top it all off, the work for my drawing class has gotten a lot more difficult in terms of homework. Just a couple of weeks ago we started moving on from the "easy stuff" to the "more adult stuff." This basically means working with India ink, collaged rubbings, and perspective drawings. These techniques from my perspective are not exactly more difficult, but more boring. I can't wait for this unit to be over.
I know you're probably really interested as to why I've been hired for so many art-related occupations. Let's go one by one.
My mom told me about this lady who I will call SJ. SJ asked in a WhatsApp group chat if anyone knew of an illustrator she could hire for a children's book she'd written. My mom suggested me, of course, and gave SJ my contact information. However, my phone at that time was suffering from a strange battery problem attack, even though I last checked it was fully charged. So I didn't get SJ's WhatsApp message until much later. I called her per her request and we agreed to meet the next day at my local masjid. So the next day, after I'd finished with my drawing class, I took the bus all the way to the masjid. I prayed Dhuhr there, hung out with a few friends, and mostly checked my phone, just waiting for SJ to text me that she was there. I'd never met her in my life so I didn't know what to look for if she was there. But then I finally saw her and we walked to the library. We got ourselves a study room and began talking about the illustrations she needed. And from there, I started working with her on her illustrations. I am beginning to stress out about them because I need to keep up with the art in school, the art for the festival, and the art for the class I'm teaching.
How did I pull myself into this festival? Well, my mom again. She told me about it and said I should participate. So I emailed the outreach people and didn't get an email until sometime in early February (probably the same week I was supposed to give my speech at that middle school). Anyway, they were going to have a meeting in the Outreach office that upcoming weekend. So when that day came, I left the house around 10:40 and walked to the masjid. The meeting was really awkward because I was the first one there. A lady came a little later, but she left early, so basically the entire meeting was just me and Imam N. Finally it was over and I walked home, sweltering. I ate some ice cream and tried to get some book editing done, but my co-writer wasn't online. And I was feeling super sleepy so I called it a day and took a nap.
Teaching art class to little kids ages 5+? One of my mom's friends heard I could do art and she really wanted me to teach her daughter. I wasn't planned at all. I had to make a curriculum, write out a material list, write down the objectives of each session, and stress over it all. I wasn't even ready for my first session. I felt like it was all happening too fast and that I didn't have enough preparation. But on the bright side, we've already had about five or six sessions and the last two are in 12/13 days. Woo!
Art class homework? My teacher gives us a LOT. My mom says it's to practice, but I think for homework this is way too much. When it's a lot like this, it's not fun anymore. Also, I don't feel motivated to do art at home, 1. because it's messy and requires a lot of materials, and 2. because no one else around me is doing art so I don't feel motivated to do it. My teacher assigns us about 6 to 7 sketchbook assignments a week, and the same number the following week, and the week after is when we should be finished with the homework. I mean, it probably sounds easy to you and you probably want to murder me for having it so easy, buuut... it's kind of different when you're like me. Motivated only by others and stressed out by too many materials and mess... I don't know. I'm probably just complaining. But with the rest of this artsy stuff going on, I've never been so stressed out in my life. No wonder my hijaamah doctor always tells me my results are too much stress.
I've never thought I'd ever stress about anything. I guess I had a different impression of stress. I used to think it gave you headaches and caused unnecessary fatigue and anger. Made you cry, even. Maybe it does, from what I've observed from my mom and sister. But I guess my version of stress is different. How, I can't think of a description right now.
What else... well, I've had a very eventful weekend. Starting Friday afternoon. I had to leave the house at 2:45 to go and teach my art class, which started at 3. Usually my class is on Saturday, from 1-2, but since I use my mom's friend's house, and that friend has a crazy schedule, I've had to reschedule some of my art class meetings. The next and last two meetings, even, are two consecutive days: April 15 and 16. Anyway, I went to teach the class, and the session wasn't at all a fun one. The girls were all too talkative and rowdy and even a little disrespectful of me. I just couldn't handle them and I was so ready for the class session to end. Alhamdulillah, an hour passed by super quickly and I finally got home. I chillaxed a little, ate dinner, and then we left to the masjid for YM. That day was my turn to give the halaqa, which I'd waited more than a month to give. My topic was happiness and optimism and being content with what you have. I feel like I did pretty well. Not as well as I'd imagined, but it was definitely better than my first one. And the good thing about it all was, I had a small audience.
Anyway, after that, there was a game night at another masjid. We played a relay race, dodgeball, and basketball. I was literally dying by the end of the night. I was sure I was gonna be sore the next morning, which wasn't exactly a good thing because on that next day, April 1st, I was volunteering with Great Days of Service. Great Days of Service, by the way, if this isn't a universal thing (dunno if it is), is an organization that helps fix and rebuild houses for low-income families who can't afford to pay someone to fix their houses, or families who are just physically unable to do so. It is literally the most fun volunteering opportunity in the world and I wish it happened every month instead of every year. Anyway, before I tell you what happened on April 1st, let me tell you what happened the week before.
So they had the breakfast at the church, and right after that, we drove out to our sites. I was working with one of my friends, Abr. Her dad took us to the site, but nobody else was there. We waited for about thirty minutes until someone finally showed up. Turns out, the homeowners thought we were coming the next week and not that day. In the end, we worked on rebuilding the porch. We had three boys working with us and four other girls. The boys mashaAllah were so friendly to us and my heart melted. (They're 14 and under, don't judge me!) As weird as this might sound, I have a soft spot for young boys who are friendly to me. It's just so unexpected, so I appreciate it as much as I can. These boys let us use the nail gun, even showed us how, let us use the drill and praised us on how we did, and conversed with us. Usually when I work with boys they just stay silent and only talk among themselves. But these boys mashaAllah talked to us and didn't say anything rude or condescending. May Allah bless their parents for raising these boys right and may Allah preserve the good behavior of these boys, Ameen.
Anyway, yeah! Let me now go back to April 1st. So we made it to the house and this time Abr was driving me along with her nieces. The boys were already there, because their mom was the captain for our worksite. The oldest helped Abr park properly, but Abr ended up having to park at the curb. Anyway, we didn't have our supplies with us yet, so we had a little free time. Our captain told us we could go play in the yard, so that's what we did. The boys invited us to go play football with them. We played for some time but then I felt like I was dying so I took a water break. For some reason, the boys seemed really annoyed by this and they kept telling us, "Come play with us!" Abr was like, "Why do you want to play with us anyway? We're girls. We're boring. Right?" And one of the boys said, "Well there's no one else to play with!" And Nrn, Abr's niece, said, "Well that's true..."
Lol. Anyway, I finally stopped dying and then we played infection. And then finally, the guy with all the wood pieces came and we were allowed to start work. We moved all the wood pieces off the truck and onto the front yard. Then we went inside and brought out all the spare wood pieces we'd saved from the previous week. And then I went inside to help Abr and our team captain install a couple of doors. It wasn't until we were kinda finished with the doors that we realized we'd missed out entirely on building the second part of the porch, which Abr and I, but especially Abr, really wanted to do, because building a porch meant using a nail gun, and Abr loves that thing.
Our captain left to go grab supplies and pick up her oldest son, so she left Abr and I and another girl to handle the doors. We weren't really sure how to do what we were supposed to do, so we went outside to take a break. We talked with the boys until two people came and gave us our lunch. The lunch was much more legit than last week's: Gatorade, apples, oranges, bananas, fruit roll-ups, sandwiches, cookies, pizza, and even wraps from a restaurant near the masjid.
"Ooh, yess, Kasbah Grill," said Ayb, one of the boys.
"I love Kasbah Grill," I said. "Their food is awesome."
"You've been to Kasbah Grill?" he asked.
"Yeah, like once or twice."
"Have you ever met the owners?"
"No...?"
"They're right in front of you."
I paused for a moment. "Oh."
Apparently, Ayb's family owns Kasbah Grill. Small world, isn't it?
When we finished eating, Zak and Msa, the two other boys, asked one of the other volunteers, the guy who came with the truck filled with wood pieces, to make swords for them out of the scrap wood. They called him "Mister Sir" because they forgot his actual name. It was super adorable and "Mister Sir" was totally fine with everything: making swords for the boys and being called Mister Sir. Msa asked for a shield next, and he tried to put pieces of wood together for one. But Mister Sir suggested that he made the shield out of the leftover pizza box, and he would attach handles made of wood. After that, Msa said, "Mister Sir has great ideas!"
Then the boys went to go play with their new swords and shields. It was adorable, I'm telling you!
Finally, finally, our captain returned with her other son, and after we finalized everything, we packed up our captain's vehicle and prepared to leave. After closing the captain's trunk and setting off to go to Abr's car, all the boys yelled, "Bye!"
"Bye!" we called back.
"It was nice meeting you!" I said. "Have a good life! Or try to."
Then we boarded Abr's car and set off. A little ways down the road to home, we stopped at the red light, and coincidentally, our captain's vehicle pulled up beside us. "Ayyy," said Ayb.
"Assalamu alaikum," said his mom.
She invited us to go to the movie theater with her, but we refused. Abr's friend Mna said, "I'm a college student, I have homework to do." Abr and I were just like, "Umm..."
So our captain was like, "Okay, that's fine."
The light turned green again, and Ayb was like, "Let's race!" so Mna and I stopped roasting Abr for a bit and cheered her on. "Go Abr! Go Abr!" and when we zipped past our captain, we yelled, "WOOOO!"
So that was a fun day. The next day, Sunday, was karate day. Also the same day they were having a celebration for GDS volunteers at the church. Also the same day my little brother had his presentation day with his co-op.
Rain was coming down in sheets. We hurried to my sister's car; me, my sister, and my mom. We had our karate session which I won't' emphasize on except the part where I got a new stripe on my belt for stances. Yay! I actually thought I wasn't gonna be the one getting a stripe because her tape that she makes stripes with was orange and I thought I already had an orange stripe. Turns out, I had just a red stripe and a yellow stripe. Smh.
Then we went home and did laundry. But it didn't dry on time, and I was waiting for it to be finished so I could shower, but no avail. So, me, all nasty and unshowered from karate, just pulled on something quick because we had to leave a little earlier to get to the GDS celebration. When we set out, the sky was still gray, and the air a little cold, so I brought a bulky jacket with me. Thankfully, it was no longer raining. Anyway, my sister drove me and our other brother to the church, and we all filled our plates with food and sat at a table. We spent about an hour and a little less than a half at the celebration, and then we left. Just before we did, I grabbed two extra fruit roll-ups because they're sooo good. We hit the road again and headed to the house where our little brother was having his co-op presentation day. We watched some kids give their presentations, which were super adorable, and then we had snacks. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it in time for our own brother's presentation, but my mom recorded most of it, so it was okay. Kind of.
Anyway, that's the story of my hectic life. Got to deal with a bunch of art-related activities which are making me hate art (but only slightly). Oh, and I'm sore all over from my very active weekend: game night, volunteering, and karate. I feel like a champ. Kind of.
Anyway, I'm sort of stressing out about all these artsy activities and events, and I just can't wait for April to be over. The art festival is this weekend and I haven't made any art yet. It's been about a week since I last worked on illustrations for SJ, and she just texted me last night. I've barely found any time for my writing at all! I want help, but when it comes to art, no one can really help!
Just pray for me. That's the most you can do.
I hope this lengthy story is worth all those weeks I didn't post!
Until next time! :)
I know you're probably really interested as to why I've been hired for so many art-related occupations. Let's go one by one.
My mom told me about this lady who I will call SJ. SJ asked in a WhatsApp group chat if anyone knew of an illustrator she could hire for a children's book she'd written. My mom suggested me, of course, and gave SJ my contact information. However, my phone at that time was suffering from a strange battery problem attack, even though I last checked it was fully charged. So I didn't get SJ's WhatsApp message until much later. I called her per her request and we agreed to meet the next day at my local masjid. So the next day, after I'd finished with my drawing class, I took the bus all the way to the masjid. I prayed Dhuhr there, hung out with a few friends, and mostly checked my phone, just waiting for SJ to text me that she was there. I'd never met her in my life so I didn't know what to look for if she was there. But then I finally saw her and we walked to the library. We got ourselves a study room and began talking about the illustrations she needed. And from there, I started working with her on her illustrations. I am beginning to stress out about them because I need to keep up with the art in school, the art for the festival, and the art for the class I'm teaching.
How did I pull myself into this festival? Well, my mom again. She told me about it and said I should participate. So I emailed the outreach people and didn't get an email until sometime in early February (probably the same week I was supposed to give my speech at that middle school). Anyway, they were going to have a meeting in the Outreach office that upcoming weekend. So when that day came, I left the house around 10:40 and walked to the masjid. The meeting was really awkward because I was the first one there. A lady came a little later, but she left early, so basically the entire meeting was just me and Imam N. Finally it was over and I walked home, sweltering. I ate some ice cream and tried to get some book editing done, but my co-writer wasn't online. And I was feeling super sleepy so I called it a day and took a nap.
Teaching art class to little kids ages 5+? One of my mom's friends heard I could do art and she really wanted me to teach her daughter. I wasn't planned at all. I had to make a curriculum, write out a material list, write down the objectives of each session, and stress over it all. I wasn't even ready for my first session. I felt like it was all happening too fast and that I didn't have enough preparation. But on the bright side, we've already had about five or six sessions and the last two are in 12/13 days. Woo!
Art class homework? My teacher gives us a LOT. My mom says it's to practice, but I think for homework this is way too much. When it's a lot like this, it's not fun anymore. Also, I don't feel motivated to do art at home, 1. because it's messy and requires a lot of materials, and 2. because no one else around me is doing art so I don't feel motivated to do it. My teacher assigns us about 6 to 7 sketchbook assignments a week, and the same number the following week, and the week after is when we should be finished with the homework. I mean, it probably sounds easy to you and you probably want to murder me for having it so easy, buuut... it's kind of different when you're like me. Motivated only by others and stressed out by too many materials and mess... I don't know. I'm probably just complaining. But with the rest of this artsy stuff going on, I've never been so stressed out in my life. No wonder my hijaamah doctor always tells me my results are too much stress.
I've never thought I'd ever stress about anything. I guess I had a different impression of stress. I used to think it gave you headaches and caused unnecessary fatigue and anger. Made you cry, even. Maybe it does, from what I've observed from my mom and sister. But I guess my version of stress is different. How, I can't think of a description right now.
What else... well, I've had a very eventful weekend. Starting Friday afternoon. I had to leave the house at 2:45 to go and teach my art class, which started at 3. Usually my class is on Saturday, from 1-2, but since I use my mom's friend's house, and that friend has a crazy schedule, I've had to reschedule some of my art class meetings. The next and last two meetings, even, are two consecutive days: April 15 and 16. Anyway, I went to teach the class, and the session wasn't at all a fun one. The girls were all too talkative and rowdy and even a little disrespectful of me. I just couldn't handle them and I was so ready for the class session to end. Alhamdulillah, an hour passed by super quickly and I finally got home. I chillaxed a little, ate dinner, and then we left to the masjid for YM. That day was my turn to give the halaqa, which I'd waited more than a month to give. My topic was happiness and optimism and being content with what you have. I feel like I did pretty well. Not as well as I'd imagined, but it was definitely better than my first one. And the good thing about it all was, I had a small audience.
Anyway, after that, there was a game night at another masjid. We played a relay race, dodgeball, and basketball. I was literally dying by the end of the night. I was sure I was gonna be sore the next morning, which wasn't exactly a good thing because on that next day, April 1st, I was volunteering with Great Days of Service. Great Days of Service, by the way, if this isn't a universal thing (dunno if it is), is an organization that helps fix and rebuild houses for low-income families who can't afford to pay someone to fix their houses, or families who are just physically unable to do so. It is literally the most fun volunteering opportunity in the world and I wish it happened every month instead of every year. Anyway, before I tell you what happened on April 1st, let me tell you what happened the week before.
So they had the breakfast at the church, and right after that, we drove out to our sites. I was working with one of my friends, Abr. Her dad took us to the site, but nobody else was there. We waited for about thirty minutes until someone finally showed up. Turns out, the homeowners thought we were coming the next week and not that day. In the end, we worked on rebuilding the porch. We had three boys working with us and four other girls. The boys mashaAllah were so friendly to us and my heart melted. (They're 14 and under, don't judge me!) As weird as this might sound, I have a soft spot for young boys who are friendly to me. It's just so unexpected, so I appreciate it as much as I can. These boys let us use the nail gun, even showed us how, let us use the drill and praised us on how we did, and conversed with us. Usually when I work with boys they just stay silent and only talk among themselves. But these boys mashaAllah talked to us and didn't say anything rude or condescending. May Allah bless their parents for raising these boys right and may Allah preserve the good behavior of these boys, Ameen.
Anyway, yeah! Let me now go back to April 1st. So we made it to the house and this time Abr was driving me along with her nieces. The boys were already there, because their mom was the captain for our worksite. The oldest helped Abr park properly, but Abr ended up having to park at the curb. Anyway, we didn't have our supplies with us yet, so we had a little free time. Our captain told us we could go play in the yard, so that's what we did. The boys invited us to go play football with them. We played for some time but then I felt like I was dying so I took a water break. For some reason, the boys seemed really annoyed by this and they kept telling us, "Come play with us!" Abr was like, "Why do you want to play with us anyway? We're girls. We're boring. Right?" And one of the boys said, "Well there's no one else to play with!" And Nrn, Abr's niece, said, "Well that's true..."
Lol. Anyway, I finally stopped dying and then we played infection. And then finally, the guy with all the wood pieces came and we were allowed to start work. We moved all the wood pieces off the truck and onto the front yard. Then we went inside and brought out all the spare wood pieces we'd saved from the previous week. And then I went inside to help Abr and our team captain install a couple of doors. It wasn't until we were kinda finished with the doors that we realized we'd missed out entirely on building the second part of the porch, which Abr and I, but especially Abr, really wanted to do, because building a porch meant using a nail gun, and Abr loves that thing.
Our captain left to go grab supplies and pick up her oldest son, so she left Abr and I and another girl to handle the doors. We weren't really sure how to do what we were supposed to do, so we went outside to take a break. We talked with the boys until two people came and gave us our lunch. The lunch was much more legit than last week's: Gatorade, apples, oranges, bananas, fruit roll-ups, sandwiches, cookies, pizza, and even wraps from a restaurant near the masjid.
"Ooh, yess, Kasbah Grill," said Ayb, one of the boys.
"I love Kasbah Grill," I said. "Their food is awesome."
"You've been to Kasbah Grill?" he asked.
"Yeah, like once or twice."
"Have you ever met the owners?"
"No...?"
"They're right in front of you."
I paused for a moment. "Oh."
Apparently, Ayb's family owns Kasbah Grill. Small world, isn't it?
When we finished eating, Zak and Msa, the two other boys, asked one of the other volunteers, the guy who came with the truck filled with wood pieces, to make swords for them out of the scrap wood. They called him "Mister Sir" because they forgot his actual name. It was super adorable and "Mister Sir" was totally fine with everything: making swords for the boys and being called Mister Sir. Msa asked for a shield next, and he tried to put pieces of wood together for one. But Mister Sir suggested that he made the shield out of the leftover pizza box, and he would attach handles made of wood. After that, Msa said, "Mister Sir has great ideas!"
Then the boys went to go play with their new swords and shields. It was adorable, I'm telling you!
Finally, finally, our captain returned with her other son, and after we finalized everything, we packed up our captain's vehicle and prepared to leave. After closing the captain's trunk and setting off to go to Abr's car, all the boys yelled, "Bye!"
"Bye!" we called back.
"It was nice meeting you!" I said. "Have a good life! Or try to."
Then we boarded Abr's car and set off. A little ways down the road to home, we stopped at the red light, and coincidentally, our captain's vehicle pulled up beside us. "Ayyy," said Ayb.
"Assalamu alaikum," said his mom.
She invited us to go to the movie theater with her, but we refused. Abr's friend Mna said, "I'm a college student, I have homework to do." Abr and I were just like, "Umm..."
So our captain was like, "Okay, that's fine."
The light turned green again, and Ayb was like, "Let's race!" so Mna and I stopped roasting Abr for a bit and cheered her on. "Go Abr! Go Abr!" and when we zipped past our captain, we yelled, "WOOOO!"
So that was a fun day. The next day, Sunday, was karate day. Also the same day they were having a celebration for GDS volunteers at the church. Also the same day my little brother had his presentation day with his co-op.
Rain was coming down in sheets. We hurried to my sister's car; me, my sister, and my mom. We had our karate session which I won't' emphasize on except the part where I got a new stripe on my belt for stances. Yay! I actually thought I wasn't gonna be the one getting a stripe because her tape that she makes stripes with was orange and I thought I already had an orange stripe. Turns out, I had just a red stripe and a yellow stripe. Smh.
Then we went home and did laundry. But it didn't dry on time, and I was waiting for it to be finished so I could shower, but no avail. So, me, all nasty and unshowered from karate, just pulled on something quick because we had to leave a little earlier to get to the GDS celebration. When we set out, the sky was still gray, and the air a little cold, so I brought a bulky jacket with me. Thankfully, it was no longer raining. Anyway, my sister drove me and our other brother to the church, and we all filled our plates with food and sat at a table. We spent about an hour and a little less than a half at the celebration, and then we left. Just before we did, I grabbed two extra fruit roll-ups because they're sooo good. We hit the road again and headed to the house where our little brother was having his co-op presentation day. We watched some kids give their presentations, which were super adorable, and then we had snacks. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it in time for our own brother's presentation, but my mom recorded most of it, so it was okay. Kind of.
Anyway, that's the story of my hectic life. Got to deal with a bunch of art-related activities which are making me hate art (but only slightly). Oh, and I'm sore all over from my very active weekend: game night, volunteering, and karate. I feel like a champ. Kind of.
Anyway, I'm sort of stressing out about all these artsy activities and events, and I just can't wait for April to be over. The art festival is this weekend and I haven't made any art yet. It's been about a week since I last worked on illustrations for SJ, and she just texted me last night. I've barely found any time for my writing at all! I want help, but when it comes to art, no one can really help!
Just pray for me. That's the most you can do.
I hope this lengthy story is worth all those weeks I didn't post!
Until next time! :)
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