Let Me Introduce Myself...

Hi. My name is Kathleen Amira Majdali and I am going to start exposing myself. Not so much physically. Just intellectually, spiritually, and probably even emotionally. I've wanted to take advantage of this blog for people to see who I really am (or at least who I am in MY mind) for a while now, especially since I'm usually reserved except when with close friends. I mean, I think I'm cool (not to be too vain about it or anything) so maybe you will think so too?


As far as girls go, I think I am feminine in many ways but, deep down, I am a tomboy. I love rough and rugged sports and activities that have the possibility of badly injuring the participants. I was a cheerleader in high school, which I don't usually admit to most people right off the bat, but I definitely got kicked and elbowed in the face, had my braces go half-way through my lip, and consider cheerleading to be one of the more dangerous things I've done.

A really quick list of things that I love to do:

#1, surfing. Of all the things I am, I would first consider myself to be a surfer. I don't think I could live too far from the ocean or moving water without getting a little antsy. I also like to skateboard, body board, body surf, and I've snowboarded a handful of times. I like to do these things because they are similar to surfing and all rather thrilling.


#2, dancing. I especially love swing dances and, believe it or not, polka. If you can twirl me around the dance floor, I'll basically be swept off my feet in an instance, especially if you're a dude and you're highly physically attractive. Besides ballroom dancing, I love to just rock out alone in my room or with a few close friends. I also like almost any music that has a good dancing beat. I feel I have a very eclectic taste in music because I need different kinds of music to dance in different ways or different styles.

#3, creating. This is a pretty vague category because it encompasses my creativity in the realms of ART and DESIGN, MUSIC, and WRITING, among other things. I love to invent, I love to think deeply, I love coming up with things, dreaming, and seeing those things take some form of shape, whether these ideas are just a quick jot or sketch in my notebook, or whether they become one of my real projects.

One final word for this post: I love making mischief. If I can find something to do that will mildly annoy someone or throw someone off, I will probably do it. I think some of my more childish moments involve throwing things into ceiling fans, toilet paper and cars, drums and ignoring curfews, and abandoned maid carts and ice machines at hotels or resorts. I genuinely care about people and I don't mean to upset anyone too much. Hopefully you don't take my pranks too hard.

Feel free to ask questions. Your questions will help to facilitate other awesome blog posts.

MLKJ Day

So, I went to see the perfect Martin Luther King Jr. Day movie, "Freedom Writers." It reminded me of my last two years of high school and that I wanted to be an English teacher to help inspire the students in the awful Los Angeles School District that language gives you a voice, writing gives you power. At least, that's what an inspirational English teacher taught me my senior year at Narbonne High School; if you can call it a high school and not a prison.

While watching this movie, I remembered stories my friends used to tell me about drive bys when they were trying to have birthday parties. I remembered friends bringing guns to school. I remembered seeing one friend stab a rival gang member during lunch time and then hide out in the girl's gym. I remember another friend coming back from lunch, having witnessed a dead body just feet from where she was going to purchase her food, but decided not to eat after what she saw. Yet another friend came, from an afterschool stop at McDonald's, to the girl's gym covered in someone else's blood, to hide from the police or whoever.

Fortunately, I never got hurt, never got scared. Just shocked, amazed, angry, sad, careful. I became "tight" with the people who might've hurt me. I came to understand them. I wanted to listen, to understand, to help. Maybe I didn't fully understand their experiences, but I came close to alot of the dangers and went through the same crappy schooling as they did. I was blessed with good parents and a good home, in a better part of town than many of them. I say them, but it was us. I am one of them, a product of the Los Angeles Unified School District, but an unusual one.

So, I suppose I still want to help, because I know how much difference a teacher can make, and "Freedom Writers" reminded me of that. I'm thinking more seriously about joining the "Teach For America" program so that I can actually get in there, get into the system and try to change things for the better. All it could take might be an understanding teacher who cares. That's what it took for me anyway.

Just Signed Up!

I only wanted to post a flippin' comment on a friend's blog and I had to go through this whole rigamarole just to do it.

So, something cool that I found out about tonight: one of the original Dogtowners lives out here on the North Shore and wants to start a girl's skate team and I've just been invited on! Heck yes! How you like me now?