What We Learned Along the Way Read Free Page A

less of each other. They hadn’t
all been out together in over a month.
    Mariam and Malikah went to the same college,
but they didn’t see each other that often. Mariam was student body
president. She was always planning a bake sale, a car wash, a
sit-in, or some kind of forum. She had little time to spend
socializing. Jaime was head of the planning committee at the
mosque, but she really wasn’t as busy as you would think. The
committee was a fairly large one, and rather than take
responsibility like most leaders, she merely divvied up all of her
work for everyone else to do. Jaime loved being the committee
chair. She had no idea most of the committee hated her.
    Mariam announced that they should be getting
to their seats, so they all started heading in. Because of the
large crowd, they held hands to keep from getting separated. As
they walked to their seats, Mariam hoped that everything would go
well. She didn’t have the energy to diffuse anymore tense
situations. When they got to their seats in the 5th row, Malikah
almost lost her mind. “I can’t believe we are this close to the
stage! How did you get these seats?” she asked with excitement. “I
could practically jump on stage and sing backup!”
    “Don’t worry about all that. I’ve got
connections,” Mariam said nonchalantly. She didn’t tell her she’d
won them on the radio.
    Mariam liked seeing her friend so happy.
After the fish fiasco, she needed something big, and this was it.
She looked down the row at her three friends laughing and enjoying
each other’s company. She could feel tears welling up as she
thought about how this might be the last time she saw them all
together for a long time. Though Mariam had known for a few weeks,
she still hadn’t found the right time to tell her friends she had
been offered and was accepting a job in Chicago. All the hard work
she had put into her college career was finally paying off.
    Mariam had gone through a rigorous
interviewing process for a position as creative director at
Meredith Advertising firm. She knew it was a hard job to get, but
Mariam had always been the type to reach for the impossible. She
had an impressive resume and the GPA to match, so when she heard
that out of the 200 original applicants, she was in the top 4, she
wasn’t surprised. She was surprised, though, when she received a
letter from Meredith Headquarters. It said they were so impressed
with her that not only did they want to offer her the position, but
that they wanted her to work from the head branch in Chicago. They
would provide her transportation and living arrangements. The only
thing that would have stopped her was Rashad. They had been
discussing marriage a lot lately, and she didn’t know what would
happen if she moved to another state.
    To her surprise, Rashad was excited about the
news. He said he was growing tired of Houston and thought a change
of scenery might do them some good. He was the head chef at Starr,
the same restaurant where Aliya worked as a bartender. He knew it
was a national chain and felt pretty sure they had a location in
Chicago. All he had to do was get transferred. After hearing that
Rashad was on board, Mariam was sure about her decision. She was
moving to Chicago after graduation. She loved Rashad and couldn’t
believe they were going to be making a move like this. She just
hoped he would propose soon.

Chapter 4- Jaime
    By the end of the night, they were all tired
and decided to go back to Aliya’s for a nightcap. Though Jaime
wouldn’t have admitted it to her parents, she had a great time.
They didn’t like her listening to worldly music, so she didn’t
bother telling them about the concert. She only hoped they wouldn’t
ask what she did once she got home. By the time they got to
Aliya’s, it was after midnight. Jaime loved Aliya’s house. Though
she was a lot less religious, Jaime never talked to Aliya the way
she did Malikah. Part of it was because she knew Aliya wouldn’t
hesitate