I have been thinking about dreams. Big dreams. And, what it takes to make those dreams come true.

As I write this, my heart is filled with an overwhelming amount of gratitude and appreciation. There’s a man who’s been in my life since the day I was born, who is the biggest dreamer I know. At times, when I didn’t understand his relentless persisting, I would get frustrated. But now, my heart has revealed what it all meant.

You see I’ve had a very rocky relationship with my dad my whole life being the rebellious non-conformist and anti-tradition anything person that I have been. For the past few months, I have consistently prayed for God to help me understand and to improve my relationship with my dad.

I can’t even begin to describe how it occurred to me, but within a few days a realization manifested itself. The most memorable trigger I can recall is a story on NPR I heard about an immigrant teenager talking about the struggles of his father in bringing him to another country. He talked with admiration about his father’s courage to leave behind a familiar way of life, language, and all his friends and family and ways of livelihood to start anew. This was all too familiar to me because this is what my father did as well.

It was my earliest memory, I was around 4 years old, my father was tucking me into bed and I remember he told me that he was leaving the next day for a long time to make his dreams come true. The dream of a better future for me, my mom and my siblings. I kissed him goodnight not knowing that after that I would only see him a few summers during my childhood.

Almost two decades later, he has made all his dreams come true. We are all together living in the same place, and living well. Alhumdulillah. So how do you make your dreams, both big and small, come true? I have learned from my father that it takes a sense of responsibility, a self-asserted right to better your circumstances and for those around you and finally, and most importantly, it takes faith and trust in Allah.

Thanks to my father’s determination, I was blessed and am so grateful to have the opportunity to grow up in the U.S. But most of all, I am just lucky to be my father’s daughter – a father who is a dreamer just like me. 🙂

Thank you, Allah. Alhumdulillah.

Stay blessed!

Peace be upon you.