Wanderlust.

Quranic exhortations to be a wanderluster <3

“Say: ‘Travel in the earth.’” [Quran 6:11]

O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. [49:13]

"And Allah has made for you the earth a wide expanse." [Noah:19]

"Do they never travel about the earth (and view all these scenes with an eye to learn lessons), so that they may have hearts with which to reason (and arrive at truth), or ears with which to hear (God's call)? For indeed, it is not the eyes that have become blind; it is rather the hearts in the breasts that are blind." [22:46]

"Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, and the ships which sail through the sea with that which is of use to mankind, and the water (rain) which Allah sends down from the sky and makes the earth alive therewith after its death, and the moving (living) creatures of all kinds that He has scattered therein, and in the veering of winds and clouds which are held between the sky and the earth, are indeed Ayat (proofs, evidences, signs, etc.) for people of understanding." [2:164]

I've always loved traveling, meeting new people, seeing new places. It may have started in high school, as a nationally-competitive Lincoln-Douglass debater, and traveling to places like Texas, Illinois, Harvard, and Yale for debate tournaments. By college, I was ready for the journey ahead: a summer in Brazil, a spring break in London, and then returning later in the fall for a full semester.

Traveling is an expensive but rewarding privilege. Being in Abu Dhabi is no exception. It is an Oriental melting pot of cuisines, colors, languages, religions, and nationalities. I'm eager to meet others, anxious even because it's such an exciting time.

I know that these moments do not create themselves--one must go out, speak, be present.