Saba Imtiaz: Everyday is a winding road..

I think the best part about going to a small university is how I meet almost everyone in the LC every single day. Fridays are the best - there's a two hour prayer break during which no classes are scheduled and the cafeteria is closed - so from 1-3 PM you can find us:

• at a department meeting
• racing to the cafeteria to buy drinks before it closes
• gossiping
• making random lame conversation and laughing hysterically at ourselves
  
• finding enough money / people with cars to get some lunch
• thinking up of new names for the PD department
• singing long-forgotten cheap Indian songs
• bugging taha/haha / wondering where taha is so we can bug him
• discussing JNC plans

we're a crazy bunch of people ;)

I don't think I've ever been so proud of my LC as I am today.

Saturday morning GBM. I thought no one would get up and come to uni on a day when they're all off from classes, but at 9:00 am I was chatting with Menab on GTalk, who was already at uni and asking me "When are you getting here?" , while I was still in my pjs.

It was one of the best GBMs we've had this year. There were lots of announcements (including the one about Brodie coming to Pakistan!) , an inspiring video and a very fun presentation on the member of the month (kudos to Sharmeen for finding the best possible picture to accompany it!) and this really great culture creation activity that the PD department ran.

The discussions we had after that were brilliant. We threw ideas back and forth, and it was so inspiring to hear everyone's opinions about how they wanted to develop the LC further and take it forward. What was even more inspiring was that the newly recruited members were so involved - at a level that I would have never expected. Looking at them, I thought back to those endless sessions where the recruitment task force debated over how many members to take in the LC, and we were very clear on one thing: we wouldn't focus on quantity. I know today, that we made the right decision.

And as we lounged around at Dunkin Donuts later; accompanying every possible couch, chair, armrest and ledge, sharing hilarious stories about recruitment, ICX meeting experiences and classroom debacles, and the usual dose of endlessly bugging each other (targets for today: Taha, Omar and Naveen) - I realized how absolutely lucky I am to have such an amazing team. :)

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Taha Durrani's world famous impersonation of Sharmin Vohra, MCVP ICX.

Director: Sharmeen
Extras: Beggar boy
Unseen extras: Rabia, Haris, Saba
Location: Lightpole on the pavement near Roaster's Cafe

I am exhausted. I just got back home a little while ago, after checking out the conference room and restaurant where our corporate lunch is going to be held. :D Right now, Taha and Ayaz are at a corporate meeting, Naveen is doing some OGX work, Sharmeen and Sara are making member files, Mikaal and Rahim are probably thinking about who will be the next national joke and everyone else is probably wondering whats going to happen at AGM tomorrow :) Its so awesome to see the level of activity in the LC! Which reminds me, I should stop blogging and start working on my own plans..

I think I am truly living in 'interesting times', as Sharmin likes to say in the twenty thousand emails she sends everyday (as compared to my forty thousand emails ;) ) I was sitting in my room yesterday using my Dad's laptop, while my sister ws sitting six feet away using our PC, and we were chatting with each other on GTalk (which, Nicole believes, is taking over the world, and judging from how much I've used it since it was launched, I heartily agree).

These days, I find myself constantly reminded of something my grandfather's brother said to me seven years ago, a few weeks after my mother died. He sat my sister and me down and said, 'today, you don't understand why this has happened to you. but years from now, you'll look back and you will know how much you have learnt and how much stronger you've become because of this.'

I miss my mom a lot these days. I miss that feeling of unconditional love. I think what keeps me going at such times is the fact that she really wanted me to succeed in life. And even though I sometimes feel like hiding under the comforter all day, I've grown old enough to realize that life can't be lived by trying to run away from your problems or pretending they don't exist. And its good to cry sometimes, even at stupid things that don't matter, to just get it out of your system.

I feel like I'm turning a corner here.

:)