MIST HOUSTON 2018
H-TOWN HOLD IT DOWN, H-TOWN HOLD IT DOWN, SAY WHAT!?
H-TOWN HOLD IT DOWN, H-TOWN HOLD IT DOWN, SAY WHAT!?
Never have I been prouder of my hometown than this weekend. I competed in the Muslim-Interscholastic Tournament (aka MIST) for the first time and my heart grew three sizes. For those of you wondering what the heck MIST is and why does it matter, the answer to your questions is it that probably doesn't matter to you (maybe it should). But if you still want to know what MIST is, what this weekend was all about, and what it meant to me - then please keep reading!
MIST is a tournament for high school students to get together and showcase their talents through so many different events: writing and speaking (extemporaneous essays, original oratories, spoken word), arts (2D and 3D pieces, short film, photography, social media), sports (football, basketball, volleyball), and so many random other talents (there's an actual talent show!). I competed in social media where you design a website and relate it to the theme of the competition with the most AMAZING team ever. Seriously, they put in so much work to this project and I'm so proud because WE GOT FIRST PLACE BABY! My team, more so than me, deserves this award and I can't wait to go to nationals with them! Oh, btw, I also got first place in original oratory. No big deal. JK I'M FREAKING OUT HAHA. I'm so happy with how my speech went and I couldn't be more thankful to God, my teammates, and coaches for hyping me up. Ya'll make our baby team of less than 20 people sound like the entire room is cheering.
As proud as I am to be nationals bound (New York here we come!), I need to tell you why MIST matters. Not only is MIST a place for talent to shine and for people to lose their voices cheering on spirit day, it's a place where a community of Muslims from all over the region (Houston, Austin, Dallas) can get together and see that we are not alone. I know that sounds so overused, but it's the truth. My MIST team consisted of students from three different high schools because we didn't have enough people for each individual school to send a team. So when I tell you that I almost cried when I walked into the room for the awards ceremony and saw hundreds of proud Muslims my age, with their faces painted, school banners flying, cheering each other on, I'm not exaggerating. This matters to me and it should matter to you because I know that Muslim-American kids are just like anyone else, but I don't think everyone else knows that. I don't know if the rest of the world knows how lit we can get with a tabla (drum) and our voices. How when the guys get on stage to accept their awards, they all wants to do the shoot. How girls can drop the sickest spoken words. How one team got so excited that when they were throwing one of the guys up in the air, they made him hit his head on the ceiling. I know that we're normal high school kids, but does everyone else? MIST is a place for us to be ourselves, nobody is worrying about how they might present Islam because everyone at MIST knows what Islam is supposed to be.
MIST HOUSTON was an experience like nothing else. I got to meet so many incredible people, witness insane amounts of talent, and wear glitter on my face while I got to accept a trophy for my team and I's hard work. I'm not sure if this blog post is going to do this weekend justice because it's just something you have to be there for. Maybe you don't understand what being surrounded by so many beautiful Muslims meant to me, but I think everyone knows what it feels like to be around people that make you happy. And that's what this weekend was - pure happiness.
(s/o to Anna J., a loyal reader since the beginning I LOVE YOU)
H-TOWN HOLD IT DOWN, H-TOWN HOLD IT DOWN, SAY WHAT!?
Never have I been prouder of my hometown than this weekend. I competed in the Muslim-Interscholastic Tournament (aka MIST) for the first time and my heart grew three sizes. For those of you wondering what the heck MIST is and why does it matter, the answer to your questions is it that probably doesn't matter to you (maybe it should). But if you still want to know what MIST is, what this weekend was all about, and what it meant to me - then please keep reading!
MIST is a tournament for high school students to get together and showcase their talents through so many different events: writing and speaking (extemporaneous essays, original oratories, spoken word), arts (2D and 3D pieces, short film, photography, social media), sports (football, basketball, volleyball), and so many random other talents (there's an actual talent show!). I competed in social media where you design a website and relate it to the theme of the competition with the most AMAZING team ever. Seriously, they put in so much work to this project and I'm so proud because WE GOT FIRST PLACE BABY! My team, more so than me, deserves this award and I can't wait to go to nationals with them! Oh, btw, I also got first place in original oratory. No big deal. JK I'M FREAKING OUT HAHA. I'm so happy with how my speech went and I couldn't be more thankful to God, my teammates, and coaches for hyping me up. Ya'll make our baby team of less than 20 people sound like the entire room is cheering.
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| What's more shiny: my glitter highlight or my first place trophy??? |
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| My beautiful social media team, you guys deserve the world. You managed to get first place even with me and my OCD self being annoying about the layout. |
As proud as I am to be nationals bound (New York here we come!), I need to tell you why MIST matters. Not only is MIST a place for talent to shine and for people to lose their voices cheering on spirit day, it's a place where a community of Muslims from all over the region (Houston, Austin, Dallas) can get together and see that we are not alone. I know that sounds so overused, but it's the truth. My MIST team consisted of students from three different high schools because we didn't have enough people for each individual school to send a team. So when I tell you that I almost cried when I walked into the room for the awards ceremony and saw hundreds of proud Muslims my age, with their faces painted, school banners flying, cheering each other on, I'm not exaggerating. This matters to me and it should matter to you because I know that Muslim-American kids are just like anyone else, but I don't think everyone else knows that. I don't know if the rest of the world knows how lit we can get with a tabla (drum) and our voices. How when the guys get on stage to accept their awards, they all wants to do the shoot. How girls can drop the sickest spoken words. How one team got so excited that when they were throwing one of the guys up in the air, they made him hit his head on the ceiling. I know that we're normal high school kids, but does everyone else? MIST is a place for us to be ourselves, nobody is worrying about how they might present Islam because everyone at MIST knows what Islam is supposed to be.
MIST HOUSTON was an experience like nothing else. I got to meet so many incredible people, witness insane amounts of talent, and wear glitter on my face while I got to accept a trophy for my team and I's hard work. I'm not sure if this blog post is going to do this weekend justice because it's just something you have to be there for. Maybe you don't understand what being surrounded by so many beautiful Muslims meant to me, but I think everyone knows what it feels like to be around people that make you happy. And that's what this weekend was - pure happiness.(s/o to Anna J., a loyal reader since the beginning I LOVE YOU)
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