Vocab Story

– Can you guess what the underlined words mean?

The history of the 1920s is an interesting one. The young generation was too excited to spurn the traditions of their ancestors as youth will do every generation cycle. Young women would deprecate the idea of a “good little girl” by openly smoking to show women could do this act as well (although lets be honest it didn’t matter who did it, it was a very unhealthy, and dangerous act (thank goodness it is unpopular today).

The “Roaring Twenties” as it came to be known involved large tax cuts, freeing citizens from confiscatory taxes that kept them from earning their well-deserved wages. You would think this governmental success for the people would leave citizens feeling satisfied and full of cheery, blithe emotions. But the youth of this era were not done yet. They were fighting for much more. Their bellicose attitude towards their time and place was not to be misread. They were sick of spurious politicians who spoke one thing while their policies spoke another. Their campaign managers would go on and on extolling their politicians’ picture perfect, clean records when in reality they were not so clean at all.

But the youth’s galvanizing spirit ignited even older generations to get up and fight back for what was rightfully theirs. Some even went as far as to sojourn outside governmental buildings for long periods of time; sometimes days, weeks, or even months! Having the older generation join the revolution greatly helped because they had the consummate knowledge and experience that their youthful counterparts lacked. This resulted in an effortless up”roar” that could not have been easier.

Please note that not all the information in this paragraph is factually correct. Some of it was made up for the sake of using these vocabulary words. Thank you!

~Sakeenah Tahir

New words to study for next post’s vocab story:

Opulently: ostentatiously rich and luxurious or lavish/ the opulent comfort of a limousine
Riposte: a quick, clever reply to an insult or criticism
Candid: truthful and straightforward, candid
Endemic: regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
Neophyte: a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief
Gregarious: sociable, fond of company
Noisome: having an extremely offensive smell
Pulchritudinous: beautiful
Cadaver: a corpse
Enigma: a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.

In an attempt to rekindle my mantra- “Don’t ever give up. The only true failure is when you stop trying.” I am making a “new” resolution. Scratch that, I am renewing an age old goal of mine:

Wake up early.

Its been a hard task that is constantly a struggle for me. But if my mother (the night owl from birth) can do it, who can’t right? So, how will I wake up early?

First of all, set the affirmation.

I will get up before 10:00 am every day/consistently. I can do this. I will do this. Starting on the first morning of the last ten days of this year’s Ramadan- May 25, 2019. 

Second (but technically always put Allah first), set your intentions/pray to Allah swt.

I pray to Allah swt that He helps me to achieve this goal. Ya Allah, you are the greatest of Helpers, when we take one step towards You, You take ten steps towards us. And when we walk towards you Ya Allah swt, you will run towards us. So I pray that you run towards me Ya Allah and help me in succeeding this affirmation so that I can better serve and worship you Ya Allah (swt). Ameen!

Thirdly, in detail, why am I doing this?

It will make your lifestyle better, you can achieve your career goals better, you will make your parents proud, you have a higher chance of study success and overall life success as well as higher chance of praying all salah. 

Fourth and finally, set your subgoals.

– Waking up early requires me to sleep at a decent hour. Sleep at 12:00/12:30 seems reasonable for now.
– If I have the urge to go back to bed, use the rubber band technique or run outside.
– (a few more. will update this later)

In either case, my point is I want to better myself. In addition to these subgoals, I am acknowledging that I NEED therapy (at least definitely at this point) to properly function and keep level headed and consistent. Without things to keep me busy (like my student organization that I left recently), I get in my head a lot and going 6+ months without therapy is taking its toll on me. SO, I want to start that up again. I am also coming to terms with the fact that I most likely need to take medication and I am willing to try again what my Psychiatrist has recommended.

Let this be a witness that I am saying and admitting that I need to and will try to take medication if this is what needs to be done.

Now that I have set all this in place and written/typed it out, I need to follow through! See you on the other side by tomorrow morning, before 10:00 am, bright and early! 🙂

Sincerely,

Yours truly, Sakeenah Tahir

Vocab Story
– Can you guess what the underlined words mean?

She sat in her boss’ office perusing through the Times magazine on her desk. In reality, she should have been worried because she was not aware of the ignominy that was about to ensue. The putative condition of Ashley’s reputation at her work was not exactly what she thought it was. In fact, her boss had found some things on her social media accounts that seemed to have been leaked to the rest of the company.

Unfortunately, her boss was not known to be a very open-minded person and against her sectarian views she had decided to accept Ashley into her company despite her views on abortion and the Pro-Choice/Pro-life principle.

Unlike the Pro Life/Pro Choice matter however, this mistake that Ashley made was incontrovertible.

Her boss walked into the room. “How are you Ashley?” she said, in a rather harried manner. She was not only nervous about having this discussion with Ashley, but her daughter had called in sick a few minutes ago and she was in a hurry to leave soon.

New words to study for next post’s Vocab Story:

Spurn: to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree with./ Fiercely independent, the elderly couple spurned all offers financial help.
Deprecate: to express scornfully one’s low opinion of…, belittle, bad mouth, decry/ movie critics tried to outdo one another in deprecating the comedy as the stupidest movie of the year.
Extol: to proclaim the glory of/ campaign literature extolling the candidate’s military record
Blithe: having or showing a good mood or disposition, cheery, bright, buoyant, etc./ a blithe, obedient child.
Bellicose: aggressive, argumentative, feeling or displaying eagerness to fight.
Spurious: fake, unnatural, not of natural quality, made with the intention of committing fraud/ claimed that the governor’s election-year enthusiasm for conservation was spurious, since he had cut funding for state parks (Merriam Webster).
Consummate: having or showing exceptional knowledge or experience in a particular field or endeavor
Confiscatory: relating to or effecting confiscation/ if tax rates escalated any further, taxes would become confiscatory, allowing hard-working individuals to keep little of their well-earned income!
Sojourning: a temporary residing as another’s guest, staying in, residing in temporarily/ She decided to teach English in Korea, sojourning in that country for a year.
Galvanize: to cause a pleasurable stimulation of feelings, charge, electrify, excite/ theatergoers were galvanized by the actor’s powerhouse performance as Hamlet.

Spurious Synonyms, Spurious Antonyms. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spurious