Difficult Conversations
Difficult Conversations
Showing Up 2024
As the world spun on its axis, grappling with the chaos of the first three months of 2024 Abshiro, Bonni, and Dahabe – sat down to untangle the year's most complex threads.
Embracing the precipice of a new year, we share our collective aspirations, recognizing the need to step beyond well-worn paths and into spaces where dialogue and discomfort nurture growth. We champion the pursuit of diverse perspectives, the call to activism, and the personal revolutions that await when we dare to break from routine. Join us as we set forth into 2024 with a compass calibrated toward kindness, community, and a yearning to carve out a legacy of empathy and understanding in a world that all too often forgets.
Visit our IG page at https://www.instagram.com/dc_overcoffee/ to join the conversation!
As-salamu alaikum, welcome to Difficult Conversations where we tackle taboo topics in a safe space through empowerment and education. The information on this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional mental health advice. Welcome back to Difficult Conversations. My name is Abshiro.
Speaker 2:My name is.
Speaker 1:Bonnie, my name is Dahave. We are back for another season, we are kicking off season three, and we decided just to take this time to kind of look back on 2023, kind of go through what we've learned, some major events that have happened, and what we each took away from it, and what we hope to gain or what we hope to achieve in 2023. 2024. 2024. Yeah, I feel like I'm going to keep saying 2023 for the next two months.
Speaker 2:And writing it too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one of the major things that have happened this year, and yesterday I was just going through and looking at some major events. So one of the things is like for example, in May King Charles was coronated. I don't know if you guys remember that.
Speaker 3:She's like I don't care I don't remember she's like I don't care.
Speaker 1:Did you guys also know that affirmative action ended in June? Yeah, last year the whole Ocean Gate Titanic thing.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That happens oh yes, yes Okay. And then in October we have the Israel and Hamas war, where Hamas attacked Israel, and then it we're still 90 days and of everything that's happened and over 20,000, over 22,000 now Palestinians have died and 57,000 or more have been injured. And then there's also other conflicts in Congo and Sudan and just a lot of heavy things and wars and atrocities that are going on around the world. So what are we feeling about that and, I guess, what has it taught you throughout all?
Speaker 3:of it. You want to go for a spani? Sure, I'm still thinking on my own.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that we're talking about this because I actually just had to write down like a note to myself and I kind of just posted it on my social media about how I've put humanity on a pedestal for a very long time, like when, you know, when I was in middle school and high school and elementary school even we learned about the Holocaust and we kind of just said I thought I can't hear myself, I can hear you, okay, cool.
Speaker 2:I thought that we had evolved past a lot of like the things our ancestors or humanity's ancestors have done. And then the last since October 7th. I think what it's taught me is that we really have not. We're as dark and as barbaric as we've ever been and I know that's a kind of heavy thing to say. But and then also I think we're more and more getting desensitized to violence. Being able to see a Child, you know, in pain, hurt that one up to bits, loan up to bits, and then scrolling past and then moving on To the rest of my day, my life, and going back and hugging my child like it's no big deal, it's making me realize like I am getting every day more and more desensitized to like.
Speaker 1:I feel like to like, for me personally, like I feel like I'll have moments where, like, I'll go through Instagram and just See everything out in the open and I have a couple Palestinians that I follow that are on the ground, you know, for example, like the sun and Salah and stuff like that, and for me, I think it has allowed me to Get more in tune with my faith and it just it really like softens your heart too and it and it's, it's not. It makes you question when, like, their resilience and their faith and where all that is coming from. And I think you we've all seen on tiktok and Instagram where people are saying, okay, what is this? Where is the faith coming from? Where is the Resilience? And it has allowed a lot of people to kind of research actually Islam and be like, okay, what are these people believing in? That, in the face of all of this that's going on, they're able to say you know what? I don't care what you have, I don't care the tanks that you have, I don't care the military power or the support that you have. I am still. You know, I'm gonna resist and stand in front of you.
Speaker 1:And I think that I was listening to a lecture yesterday by Omar Suleiman and he was saying, like a lot of people have not people who are going through this situation in Gaza, but people that are like Witnessing this and like all the stuff and all the tragedies that are going on, and they're saying, okay, where is Allah in all of this? You know and he made a really good point that they're not the people on the ground are. They're not the ones that are asking that. You know that question, we are the ones that are asking that question. And the fact that, even though they're going through, they're still saying, you know, alhamdulillah, they're still saying Inna lilai wa inna li rajroon and stuff like that, and it was a very powerful reminder.
Speaker 1:And he was basically saying, like the question is not where is Allah, the question is, the question is where are you? You know, what are you doing? What's your part in all of this? You know, because on the day of judgment, you know mil qiyamah, when Allah swt, like, will ask you and say, okay, when this atrocity was going on, what did you do? Right, did you make dua? Like the least we could do is make dua for them. You know, and did we do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the question that you ask is what did 2023 has taught you or what brought for you? I think for me I don't remember the first six months of 2023. I'm just kind of moving through life as Automatic as you can think of. I think the last six months has been really difficult in general, just the way the world is currently functioning as well and just working in the field of Mental health. You kind of get exposed to a lot of stuff and you notice more things, and I think the other aspect of that, one of the things that I'm noticing in the last 90 days or so, is the idea of what is social justice means for me as a person, specifically being an Oromo person, and as an Oromo, our Social justice conversation, being Oromo itself, is a political conversation from the land that I'm from, and and so For me it's kind of tapping into that. It's like for being an Oromo person, this is my blood to talk about Justice and pain, difficulty, because my people also go through similar of Genocide that has not been even talked about it in the way that other just genocides has talked about. So it's kind of getting that exposure to know that when I can take be able to kind of Understand the difficulty that's happening in the world, taking a step back to kind of under, not kind of fuel me, to Blunt, sight me and shut me down when enough, like you said earlier, upshadow where we get desensitized to. You said, or Bonnie said, I Get that I get desensitized.
Speaker 3:But I also realized that as part of me being Oromo and black and having such a very like into intersectionality, as being who I am, I need to know that there's lengths of.
Speaker 3:I have to pace myself because this fight is not going to be like One conversation that I have and I kind of move on from and I recognize to kind of say, oh, this is happening, but it's not going to be like 90-day conversation, is going to be the rest of my life, the rest of the next generation Conversation. How do I feel myself to take a step back and still have those complex conversations and not being shying away from saying, oh, that is very difficult conversation, I can't talk about it, or that I'm seeing too much, I'm gonna need to take a break from it. I can't because my intersectionality does not allow me to take a break right, there's no way that if I walk around thinking that I can be sheltered and not being touched by it, but I will be because, again, I'm Oromo, I'm black, I'm Muslim. All these identities place a significant role to you how I function in the world so how do you like?
Speaker 1:how do you create that balance? Because I think there's a fine line between like Saying, okay, this is going on, let's talk about it, and then having it weigh on you and be so heavy. How do you create that balance?
Speaker 3:You talk about it, you do what we're doing right now, right. And then the balance is that you go back to what you said about Islam. Islam is all about balance. Islam is Islam has always been about talking about the difficulty that happened prior to historical event and, for example, salah Dina Yubi and when the crusaders are happening is worse than what we're seeing right now, right. And we have to tap into historical event and then even talking about Algeria genocide, that it happened with French, that there was about million people are dying, right, and those historical event kind of tapping into like wait a minute, this is not the first time this happened, this is a historical event. But for me to find a balance is like how do I tap into those historical Freedom fighters and saying, wait, how did they do it Right? I'm feeling lost here. How can I function through this?
Speaker 1:And it brings back the point you were making earlier, bonnie, about, like, have we learned anything? The fact that we keep, like you mentioned, the elderly, uh, massacre, um and a lot of other um things in history? Are we really progressing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I feel like you guys are more optimistic than I am right now, and maybe you guys caught me in the wrong time.
Speaker 2:But I feel like it goes back to that like almost like half a century, every half a century or so, the same things happen to different people right To different group of people. And then we think, looking back, like I said, reading from the history books, we can tell or we we supposedly can tell um what's right and wrong and and and plain language you know and um, but when you're in it and you're standing there and you're just, you're in it, you're me and the historical time that it's happening and you're saying that.
Speaker 2:Imagine the idea of saying stop killing people or ceasefire being a political statement right and people being divided on that are like. Is people seeing an image of a? You know, we keep saying men and like children and women as of the men, the innocent men don't matter right.
Speaker 2:Like, because that's what. That's what the media tries to do, is like oh, if we talk about the women and the children, people's heart strings will be tugged, but if so, let's just ignore the innocent men that are dying to like, but we see these innocent men I mean by default, we've already, we've already kind of villainized the men.
Speaker 2:So we, we see, this meant these men that are strip naked and that are blindfolded and that are tied behind their hand and they're being tortured live. And then there are people with guns on on TikTok singing songs and kicking them and beating them right. So brave of those people, by the way. And then we see these things and then we're like, oh we, we go to the comment section or you see a child that has like their face blown off and their brain coming out, and you see, go to the comments and you will find not one, not two, not three, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 people trying to come up with an angle why this is happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not justifying, to justify it, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't care, right, I don't care if this is a Palestinian child, I don't care if this is an Oromo child.
Speaker 3:I don't care if this is a black child.
Speaker 2:I don't care if this is an Israeli child, a Parisian child, it doesn't matter. It's a human being. Yeah, it's a human man, it's a human child, it's a human woman. Like it happens anywhere in the world, when it happens in China, when it happens, it happens anywhere. Everybody should be outraged. Some people, at some point, are trying to find an angle and it kills me, like I'm like, where did we get here? But then, but then, 50 years from now, when we write it down in the history books and then we read it, and then our grandchildren are going to be like Wow, this was a tragedy.
Speaker 2:How did people let it happen. They read that and then they do the same thing all over again. We're doing the same thing all over again and it's just like where did the late like? Where did the history?
Speaker 3:books go. What are you saying is that we don't learn from history. We don't learn from history.
Speaker 2:And we act like and I'm sorry to go back to your question about where do you find that balance? It's like for me it's not right now, it's not even about finding balance. I'm just having my eyes wide open and bringing humanity back to from the pedestal that I put it on and being like, oh, we're so much better, we were doing so much, and you know, we've progressed so much. We have we're so advanced. I think our technology might be better. I think for me, like it makes sense.
Speaker 1:And the way like I try to make meaning and make sense of it is like there is a life after this right, that there's an Akhira, that there's a day of judgment and stuff like that, and so it's almost like a. You know, when you, I don't know, it's called gingilcha. You know, like when you put stuff in um what is that called in English. It's like, it's like this uh, I don't know when you separate the rocks, yeah, you separate like the rocks from the pebbles I don't know what it's called.
Speaker 3:Shifter, shifter, shifter, shifter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for me it's like, when these things happen, it's almost as like a sifting process. You know, like for us, um. Even for example, in the Quran, allah swt says do you think that you're going to get Jannah easily? You know, you think that you're going to without going through tests and trials and um tribulations and all that stuff. It's not. It's not an easy thing to say yeah, allah, give me Jannah.
Speaker 1:You know, um, and so that's what I personally find comfort in, and you know, even though all these people are, you know, dying and going through all of these atrocities, at the end of the day there is an Akhira, there is going to be justice and there's going to be a reckoning you know and so that's what I find solace in yeah.
Speaker 3:I think when Bonnie said that I'm going to try to put people, not put the humanity, in the pedestal, the pedestal was never supposed to be there, right? And I think the fact that of what you're saying is related to the fact, like when Allah says in the mad usra, usra, right, even even that statement, it's like we forget that. Like ease comes with the usra, like it's like a sandwich without the challenge, that ease doesn't come. Yeah, right, you don't appreciate it. You don't appreciate it, you won't notice it.
Speaker 3:And I think Allah knows the balance and the hope, but we have to have a hope in Allah, right, not the humanity, but to Allah and to say that he has a plan.
Speaker 3:He's like one of his name is Al Hakim, right, and if you can go back and understand what Al Hakim is, the wiser, the word, the one with the wisdom he created all of this, and sometimes going into tapping to that, is that Gingilcha, that's where you're looking for, like it's inside that, all that things that we're trying to sift through it, and it's like, oh, that's where the hope that I'm looking for, and not from the humanities, more like from your children, from your friends, from your neighbors, from the people that you have emotional connection to the hope is through them and the way that they kind of try to kind of bring you back from this very cynical state that we're put ourselves into saying, hey, it's not that dark.
Speaker 3:I'm going to try to bring you back in this space where we have to kind of feel it and sometimes we don't have a feel for ourselves. We have to kind of lean on to one another, saying I know you don't have the hope today, but I'll carry it for you. Here is some of the hope that you may need for next week and so that that you can kind of get a little bit of perspective. And sometimes we have to zoom out right Because we're so zoomed into the difficulty and the strategies of this incident that's happening simultaneously.
Speaker 3:It's like how do I zoom out a little bit? How do I get clarity Cause, right now everything feels foggy.
Speaker 2:And I think also one of the things outside of hope and outside of all of these things is that action Like I am realizing that one and I feel like I am the, the like there's the you know positive hope in like all these things. And then there's, like this, the real, we don't we have to bring that in some time.
Speaker 2:But I feel like I don't mean to be like the doomsday person, but like the systems that you know of the world, realizing that, like they're not perfect, not even close right, the leaders are not as smart as we give them credit to be. So I think my hope is yes, it's with a law in. You know, make, make a lot of the while you pray and you know all of these things, and for me, even you know, I, I I started taking Islamic study classes because I wanted to learn a little bit more. I kind of just wanted to dive a little bit more into the Dean Because I needed some space where I feel certainty.
Speaker 2:Right, but outs, when you walk outside of that, I think it's more of like Challenging that those leaderships making sure that, like you, are raising the next generation so that they don't forget not just they don't forget, but they do better when you're interacting with people, making sure that they see your humanity as much as you see theirs. Like making I I have. I'm the kind of person that's like I Just match people's energy normally, like you're nice to me, I'm nice to you.
Speaker 2:You're up to me, you'll get it back.
Speaker 3:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean I'm that person. But now I am trying to be like, okay, move with kindness, move with the space of like, just giving people an unlimited benefit of the doubt, without like getting them into my boundary, but just like being like I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and be kind to you regardless. Oh, you are to me, you're, you know, whatever, whatever I'll be, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and be kind to you and nice to you, and so that maybe you know, you get to match my energy instead of me matching yours. That way we create some sort of like Connection, because you're only responsible for my action.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So like if we create some sort of connection and some sort of like, just touching each other's humanity, right Like, and then Technically, you're very hopeful.
Speaker 1:I think that statement right there? I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I just by that statement.
Speaker 3:I think you are Um, but I'm like, no, that's too much of me giving you a benefit that you've done once and twice and yeah, but going back to our leaders.
Speaker 1:I think that, um, whatever leadership that we have currently in the world, it's a reflection of us. Yeah right, it's a reflection of our own Issues and backgrounds, or whatever, because at the end of the day, we put them up there and they don't have power if we don't give them.
Speaker 3:I don't agree. I don't see even necessarily we we put them up. I think capitalism put them up there, I think money put them up there and I think we are used as an, as a guinea pig to come up guinea pig to kind of make it seem like we did that. But if, if I was the billionaires, put them out there because they get out of so much wealth, out of this whole experience.
Speaker 1:But the thing is, though, I feel like, even in capitalism, right, as a people, I feel like we have more strength than we give ourselves credit for, you know, because it's it's all based on consumerism, right, like, for example, with the whole like boycott and stuff like that. That's going on, um, and I remember reading an article where, uh, you know how like there was in the red sea, how it was like unsafe for the ships or whatever, and then, right after that was going on, bp had Pushed their prime minister to call for a ceasefire.
Speaker 3:Because he invests a lot of money into it, exactly, but it, it's, it's he's money, money. I'm telling you about us, but we are the consumers, though what? Okay, so you have to identify who are the consumers, based on um, I think it depends, right, I have to say it depends in the situation, because there are a group of people who are consuming based on need. There are people who don't actually care at all, regardless what this capitalism, regardless who's getting hurt, and there is that. And there are people who are new to this and they're learning and try to understand how they can navigate. So it depends on the situation, but majority aspect, you write yes, consumerism does. We are part of that, but at the same time, I think where that hope comes in is that the the people who's learning and trying to understand. Am I buying things that I don't need? Is this thing that I'm buying affecting the people who's getting hurt? And it raises awareness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I I kind of I feel like there's a merge of two things that I feel. One is that, yes, like, money walks and people listen to money more than, like, you know what we say and what we feel and what we care about, um, so if we withhold our money, our leaders will listen, but at the same time, like I said, the systems of the world are broken and the way we are already so programmed and into um our attention spam is shorter than it's ever been in history. We are, we consume more now than we've ever consumed in history. We then, at the same time, where there's a deficit of, like, resources, right, so people, sometimes they don't have the choice, like, for example, people that are in, um, uh, state-funded.
Speaker 3:State-funded programs.
Speaker 2:There's a limit to what they can buy and what they can use. So they don't have the choice but to buy whatever that they're given to buy. So those things might not be things that you know they want to support. They don't have the luxury to not support.
Speaker 2:In addition, if you guys noticed, there has been laws that have been getting implemented, state after state after state, where it is now getting to be illegal to boycott certain plate. You know certain companies to boycott certain uh items coming from certain certain countries, and it's I don't know how. That's not an infringement on the first amendment. But at the same time, laws are being passed to infringe on people's Ability to to boycott or to not boycott. Literally, people are getting their grants withdrawn, people are getting fired from jobs, people are like losing their scholarships, people are losing, you know, getting expelled or suspended from schools. So so there are there money talks, but then how? How much Are you willing to like? It's okay to not go to Starbucks, that will hurt, yeah, but then the big moves that you want to make, you can't make because there are laws that are shackled.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but even how much? But how much are you ready to get get comfortable with discomfort, right? Yeah, that's the thing. That's what you're asking right there, connie, that's a level. Yeah, how much are you willing to get?
Speaker 2:uncomfortable. Can you imagine, in the Silver Rights era, when people are like, nah, I'm not gonna take the buses, I don't have a car, but I'll walk the 20 mile, right, like that is the commitment that you need. But we don't have that commitment because for months, for years now, our attention spam has been like shortened by TikTok, instagram and all of these things, and we've been so like um, programmed, programmed into being so vain, right Like and like wanting and thinking and being so independent thinkers and like individual thinkers and very like self-centered. Mimi, mimi, I, I, I, selfie, selfie and then so then what's the solution?
Speaker 1:Like what? What do you guys think are some ways that I guess will help, even if it's one by 1%?
Speaker 2:one get out of this polarized mind state Like it's not, everything is a political statement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not everything is a political statement. Not everything is, like um, a political issue. Some things, you can cross the boundary. You can cross the border and like have the same um, have a conversation on outside of the political spectrum that you are in. So like not don't let your political stance stand in like the bigger picture, bigger conflicts that are going on, um to I feel like no little, no movement is too little. No little boycott is too little because it will add up three. Read Like there was this. There's this girl on TikTok. It's so funny Not on TikTok coming on, and she's on TikTok, but I follow her on Instagram that she posts articles every day for people to read and every day she repost the same thing and she's like only two people read the whole article. And there's a saying that if you want to hide something from people, put it in a book.
Speaker 2:So read like read, read, read about from people that you don't agree with. Read from people that you agree with. Read from people you know things that you don't know about. So that way you're not easily manipulated. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for me I would say find a way to build, foster, you know, community and talk about difficult stuff and not being shying away from the conversation, that, even if it makes you uncomfortable, I think it's okay to kind of step back and say why does this make me feel uncomfortable, why am I kind of avoiding the conversation? And I think, at the end of the day, we are meant to be in collective environment. We are built that way as a human being and if you, if we want to kind of dismantle this system that has conditioned us to a certain way, is for us to kind of create in the community that we can kind of foster those challenges, foster those difficulties that we're having, and not trying to kind of get comfortable with this level of life that we're leading. Kind of maintaining, like what I just said earlier at the beginning, is like I don't remember the first six months of 2023.
Speaker 3:It's because, case in point, I was just moving like a robot, like not even taking a step back and try to reflect if anything's are happening or getting back in like activism, for example, like creating communities, and there's a lot in Minneapolis specifically for us. It's like we are so comfortable just sitting and doing the main thing that we forget to like go to protests, go to volunteer, our other social justice of communities. I think those are the things that, plus what Bonnie said, would kind of help us to get out of this like way of where we are and even challenge the aspect that humanity's put a soul, that we have put it on and to say, well, according to this community, that I've made sure that's part of that.
Speaker 1:I think the conversation piece is like, really, really important and, like you said, bonnie, kind of stretching your hand across the aisle and just having conversations that are uncomfortable For one, it does expand your horizons and then the other person, too, does expand their horizons. So, to wrap up, I would just like to kind of go through what you guys's hopes are for 2024. What is one thing that you would like to achieve? Like me, I'm kind of late on my whole 2024 planning. So I got this. I don't know if you guys have seen this like big, huge calendar. It's probably been on your feed, I think it's by like Jesse Seltzer or something like that, but it's like 365 days all laid out on one big thing, and so, like you see your whole year plastered, can you send?
Speaker 3:it to me I will, I will.
Speaker 1:Mine, I ordered it and it's coming. But but his big thing is that like try to do like little things, like every two months or so, like try to do like a mini vacation or like a mini like disrupt your routine. So it kind of gets you get to your mindset out of like the mundane that you were talking about. Um, yeah, so what is one thing you would like to do this year?
Speaker 1:Like have a big event and if you haven't thought about it, it's fine, we can come back to it. Maybe another episode, but one big.
Speaker 3:I thought about it and then one little, who has it? I don't make. What one thing is that I don't make new year's resolution? I make more like personal um growth mindset. Where I go into this year is just more about taking a risk on myself, um, just just taking a risk on and the things that I've kind of afraid to do. So give me one of that.
Speaker 1:One thing.
Speaker 3:I want to do a solo traveling. Okay, I do, and I think that's the biggest one Do you have where I do, but I don't want to say it? Okay, and I want to do a solo traveling, regardless what happened. And I think I want to get out of that mindset of, I think if once I break that mold of doing that one thing, I think that would be the key to for a lot of the things that I want to do this year. Okay, bonnie.
Speaker 2:This year I am trying to like. So I have my year divided up into mind, body, spirit, and so, wait, sorry, what did I say?
Speaker 1:Mind, so body, spirit, and I don't know, I forgot what. The fourth one is Physical.
Speaker 2:Physical, okay. So I want to be able to, oh, social, social, sorry. I want to be able to take care of those things. You know, and I have plans to be able to take care of those things and to advance on those things and to be better in 2024 than I have been in 2023 and the years before. So, like, spirit-wise, like I said, I want to be able to get reconnected with my faith by taking, like, some study classes and like reading the O'Reanmore and like having that programmed into my schedule and to my day-to-day life. You know, going to the gym, you know, like a resolution another year, another plan, and like you know, and doing other things, doing social things, doing more, being more active and like being, you know, having more relationships. I've been very I know this might sound like a whatever, but I've been an introvert for almost five years now, like I had a or we're rubbing off on you I literally.
Speaker 3:I think we're very selective.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, and her introvertedness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'm not introverted when it comes to the people that I already have in my circle, it's just when it comes to outside of my. I'm an ambivert, so but that leans a little bit towards being an introvert and I'm trying to get a little bit more out of my comfort zone and meet new people and create new social circles and, like you know, blah, blah, blah. So I've kind of divided my year up into focusing on these two, four spaces.
Speaker 1:Give me one event, one thing. It could be a big event, it could be like a small.
Speaker 2:I'm planning on graduating again this year, and then I'm supposed to oh, let's stop it all.
Speaker 3:My wife.
Speaker 2:Anyway, and hopefully I will, I won't say this. I won't say this. Oh, I'll start some sort of business.
Speaker 1:Inshallah, inshallah. So I think for me, if I want this year to be the year where I don't limit myself in terms of you know, certain plans that I want to do, whether it's business or personal, and I want to kind of not put things up where, like, because sometimes, you know, I feel like you'd make a goal and you're like, oh really, like, is that really realistic, you know, is that something really that you can do?
Speaker 1:And I want to get out of that mindset because I feel like, for a long time, that is what has held me back in terms of trying to achieve certain things and like I'll start something and then it won't, like I won't finish because I've already kind of made myself believe that you talk yourself out of it.
Speaker 1:I talk myself out of it right. So that's one of my biggest things and, inshallah, I hope to make a lot of changes in terms of family, business and stuff like that and kind of just going on my own. One big event that I want to do this year is I want to either go to Ethiopia, like on a family visit in maybe August, and also I want to do a Umrah in. December, maybe inshallah.
Speaker 3:That's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 1:Both are big milestones, big milestones, but I feel like it's either one or the other, so I need to. Once my calendar comes in, I'll update you guys, okay.
Speaker 2:Wait, like December, like December 2024? Yeah, or August 2020.
Speaker 1:Why did?
Speaker 2:I just ask that it's January yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. Thank you for sharing ladies. That's like incredible ways to hopefully. Maybe we can do a recap at the end of the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, check through what happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I love that. We are all very ambitious people individually and very passionate about our goals, so hopefully that sustains for the rest of it.
Speaker 2:If you decide to go to Umrah, I might come with you.
Speaker 1:Put it on your calendar, All right well thank you guys for listening to us, as always. Please comment on our Instagram page, send us an email. We love to always hear from you guys. What did you think this year? How did it go for you? What are some things that you hope to achieve this year? We're always here, so please update us. Send us an email.
Speaker 2:Yep. Assalamu alaikum, wa alaikum salam, this has been difficult conversations.
Speaker 3:I can't.
Speaker 1:Join the conversation in the comment section or on our social media pages. We do not have all the answers, and our biggest goal is to kick off the conversation and get it started. May Allah SWT accept our efforts and use this for catalysts of change.