At the height of your youth, in any culture, the perplexity of balancing family life, with friends and school is undoubtedly an intricate task. As cryptic as it may seem to touch base with your family, it is even more so vital. As cliché as it may sound, friends come and go. However, you are stuck with your family, particularly your mother, especially since you are lucky enough to be Afghan. So the sooner you decide to learn to deal with them, the better. Friends are an important and fun aspect of everyone's life. But one must not forget that Brutus stabbed Caesar in the back, literally. Even if your friends do not do anything to harm you, your parents are always the ones their for you in the end. Whether it's making you qabuli or caring for you while you are sick, it's always your family. Even in the Holy Quran, it mentions that Muslims should modernize with society while simultaneously emphasizing the value of mothers. You can modernize by hanging out with your friends regularly but still instilling all trust within your family; for blood is thicker than water. Furthermore, it's in our culture for daughters to be close to their mothers. It is an interesting paradox that girls revolve their live's around their friends, while the girl's family revolves their live's around their daughters. In the end, who am I to preach all this to you? I am confident that you already feel this way and know that this is how it should be. I am merely reminding you. I myself am not the height of perfection in balancing my life. I won't even begin to claim so. But it is a challenge that you and I deal with each rotation the earth makes. We cannot expect to achieve moral perfection, as we have already seen in Benjamin Franklin's endeavor, but we can strive to do so. And we can tell our mother's all our secrets, thoughts and desires along the way, while still texting friends and finishing our term papers. What concerns you? E-mail me at nawa@zebamagazine.com

   

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