The original hijab fashion, hijab style, beauty and entertainment blog for Muslim women

When I first started writing back in college I learned some valuable lessons as a columnist for the school paper.

You can’t please everyone.

It’s kind of a thin line you walk as an opinions writer. On one hand you get the chance to write your thoughts and feelings on things (and are expected to do so), but on the other hand there will always be someone who is offended.

When I was a college columnist, I would often forget that there were all these readers out there, until I started to get negative feedback. Then I was up all night and haunted by the fact that I upset someone. It was not my intention at all!

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I’m feeling so confused these days as I try to contemplate whether I should enroll my daughter in preschool.

She’s going to be 3 soon (I still can’t believe it!) and it seems as though I’m totally out of the loop when it comes to school stuff.

I used to feel that anything before the age of 5 was really just glorified daycare. But as I see my daughter getting really excited about the 2 hours a week we spend at a local park district playgroup, I realize she wants and craves instruction from a teacher and someone other than myself. I do spend time with her and pretend to do school work with her, but she talks on and on about the playgroup and the teacher and how she wants to go to school.

My dilemma is where to start.

I had no idea just how bad it is in the city in terms of competitiveness. Today I randomly called a few places and they all said the same thing, “We take applications a year in advance”.

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Miscommunication seem has become quite an art these days with the advent of the internet.

Instead of “communicating” we are constantly being bombarded with so much social media that we end up shutting off people around us.

When was the last time you picked up a phone to talk to someone?

Everything we do is via email, text, twitter, facebook and the list goes on.

There are so many things that could be avoided if only we took the time to speak one on one with each other.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten stressed out over an email and thought “Hmm what did they mean? are they mad or are they being sarcastic?”

And so that’s what made me feel like writing this particular post.

Even as I write this post, I realize that it can be read a million different ways. If you’re in a good mood while reading it then you’ll think I’m really happy as I write this. If you’re having a bad day you might feel like I’m berating and lecturing you about how bad the internet is

So how do we balance it out?

I guess the first thing is to take a deep breath and figure out if you’re just over-reacting.

Here is a recent example:

Me: My boss just scheduled me to work and I told her I can’t come in on that day.

My Husband: What did she say back?

Me: (In a dramatic tone of voice)  OK fine.

My Husband: Did she say it to you like that?

Me: No she wrote it in an email. I think she’s mad. Maybe I should go in anyway. Oh man, you think she’s going to fire me?

My Husband: You know she’s busy, she doesn’t have time to write out a long explanation. She’s fine.

Me: Yeah you’re right..(I feel like such a drama queen).

Obviously I freak out a little too much.

What are your thoughts? Do you think all this social media leaves us less “sociable?” Or are you able to read things as they are?

Want to read more posts like this? Click on Behind the Screen for the full collection.

**keep reading below if you’d like to know my workout progress**

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I can’t believe it, but this is the 1000th post for Hijabtrendz! This website has definitely come a long way from a concept back in April 2007 to finally launching online in August 2007, with a few re-designs since then.

Thank you to each and every one of you for visiting, commenting, and spreading the word about this site!

1000 posts is a pretty huge accomplishment for me because I honestly never thought of myself as a “writer”. Maybe it’s because I never found the type of writing that I actually enjoyed. I used to dread writing news articles for print and preferred broadcast writing because the style is conversational. But here I am typing away and loving every minute of it. So thank you again for helping me to pursue something that makes me feel happy and like I’m doing something that matters. You help to motivate me each day and give me that push to find things to write about that will make your day a positive one.

So now I’d like you to let me know what you’d like to see more of or less of? Are there any features on the site that don’t work that I should know about? Anything you’d like to see a post about that I haven’t covered?

Keep reading below if you’re interested in my workout progress.

Want to read more posts like this? Click on Behind the Screen for the full collection.

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I keep talking about how I want to get back in shape and sadly I haven’t had the time to pursue my workout goals as much as I’d like. Every time I plan to blog about it, I realize, oops I haven’t done more than run 15 minutes on the treadmill twice a week.

Last night I had a work meeting and jumped on the bus hoping I’d get there at least 5 minutes early. Turns out I was on an express bus that was making no stops until it got to the train station, which is about 5 or 6 blocks away from my work.

As soon as we reached the train station I had about 3 minutes to make the meeting, so I ran like I’ve never run before. All of a sudden my legs felt like rubber. And I fell *splat* my face just barely hitting the pavement. I was thankful that my pants didn’t tear but they got a little scuffed on the knees. And that’s when it hit me. Boy am I out of shape! My lungs were burning from the cold air, and when I did get to the meeting (2 minutes late) I was trying to hide my huffing and puffing. It seemed like forever before my breathing became normal.

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