Students Write - Prof. Martin's Class: Omar

My Community
by Omar Cruz

The Aldine community of is extremely important to me because of how much history we have together. This can be found during Hurricane Harvey while people where helping each other. This proves that no matter what you look like, the people of Aldine will take care of each other.

Aldine is an area of business where the people work hard every day trying to make money to feed their families. There are areas in Aldine where you can find many of the same shops and businesses, which means that the customer will have options. It’s kinda funny for me because I can ask multiple people that live in Aldine what their parents do for a living, and they more than likely will respond that they run their own business.

Growing up in Aldine is harder than others might think. This is due to the challenges one must overcome. For example, not dropping out of school, because of all the money that the students’ parents are making they star to question why do the need school then drop out.

The future of Aldine lies with the next generation of people who must vote to clean up the community. When the majority of the population is brown ,the people have a hard time trying to change anything because of what they might be afraid of. For example, one might be afraid of what can happen to their loved ones if they vote.

In conclusion, the Aldine community is very strong when they want to be, and can at times miss their opportunities due of changing what they desire. This is due to the fact that they are simply afraid of what could or what might happen. The community has adopted the strong mentality of bend and not break, which shows when their people are in trouble or in danger.

Students Write - Prof. Martin's Class: Salmah

Across the World and Back: My Journey to Fashion
by Salmah Siddiqi

In all honesty, my current local community is still something I’m trying to get used to. For 9 years of my life, I lived in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. A small country in South East Asia, Malaysia is home to a predominately Muslim population. With Malay, Chinese, and Indian citizens, Kuala Lumpur, or KL, was the environment I grew up in. It was only during the summer of 2017 that I moved back to the states for college and realized how different both communities are. As a freshman in college with goals to become a fashion journalist, I’ve realized how both communities in KL and Houston conflict with and support my dreams.

When I turned 10-years-old, my family and I moved to KL. Seeing as I thought Malaysia was somewhere in China, the experience was a definite culture shock. Living in an international community, coupled with the fact that I was homeschooled, allowed for me to grow without a lot of the pressure that school puts on children. I realized that I loved both fashion and writing with an immense passion. To kill two birds with one stone, I decided to start up my own fashion blog.

My blog was definitely not a consistent hobby of mine, but it did open me up to the world of social media. In high school, I decided to delve further into social media by starting my own Instagram account to post photos of my outfits. By doing this, I learned about events going on in my area in KL; Mont. Kiara. An area made up of British and Korean expats, Mont. Kiara had a growing art community. Every weekend there would be open microphone sessions, art workshops, student fashion exhibits, and marketplaces at my local mall and cafes to help small businesses and young, budding artists get exposure. Each event allowed me to grow my network from artists to writers and even to small business owners.  

A photo of NabiilaBee and me meeting

Once I got to Houston, things changed. Houston is a lot bigger than KL and thus very much spread out. This means that it takes a lot longer to get from one place to another, compared to KL where everything is relatively close. With my close-knit artist community left back overseas; I had to find a new community to connect with. It took time but eventually I found out that the majority of people who are interested in writing and the arts in general are students and hipsters who occupy downtown Houston. The downside to this is that I’m nearly 30 minutes away from this community of like-minded souls because I live in the suburbs.

In my opinion, I don’t exactly think my current local community supports or cares rather for my career of fashion journalism. It’s a career choice that not many middle-class Americans in suburban Houston think of. Even the Muslim community that I’m part of doesn’t necessarily support or care for fashion journalism as most young Muslim’s I’ve met in Houston want to pursue something in science, math, or business. Despite these conflicts with my goals, I still want to find and interact with the downtown community of young artists. Till then, I believe that I just have to keep searching and connecting with people through various social media so I can build my network. Having this large network makes it then easier for me to build my presence in the fashion industry and one step closer to becoming a fashion journalist.