Let me start by saying I can’t believe I’m finally writing this. For months and months, I’ve been thinking about how amazing it would be to start a blog and how good it would be for me, personally, to be writing about things I love. After discussing what was just a little seedling of an idea with my close friends and family and then allowing that seedling to grow, I saw something that could be very fulfilling. Having that support was all I needed to start “The Real Rumiya”.

I think it’s important you know a little about me before we get started. My name is Rumiya Malik, I’m an American Pakistani Muslim who was born and raised on Long Island and now I’m studying management at Pace University in downtown NYC. I’ve always been very proud of my background and always proud to have been given a unique name (shout out to my parents for finding my name in some big book of Muslim girl names back in 1999). Of course, to this day when attendance is being called in class or my name is called at the doctor’s office my name is mispronounced and when I was younger, it was really upsetting. Before kindergarten, it wasn’t like I had heard my name pronounced by more people than my family— my family who said my name with so much love and care (RUM-ee-yuh). Whether it was my parents calling me by their nickname for me, “Rummo” or my very loud and loving Punjabi grandma yelling Rumiya for me to come upstairs to greet her when she came over dinner, I thought my name was super special until I started elementary school.

I couldn’t believe that the teacher was trying to call my name when she said “Roo-meh-ya”. 5-year-old me was shook. Then a few months later, Christmas came and all of my friends were discussing their holiday plans while I had none. I went crying to my mom and just poured my heart out to her, “Why don’t we celebrate Christmas? Why do I look so much different than everyone? Why do kids make fun of my lunch?”. It was then and there that my mom, being the amazing woman that she is, sat me down and said everything I needed to hear. She told me we came from Pakistan, a place with so much beautiful culture and while we didn’t celebrate Christmas, we had Eid and so many more lively traditions of our own. I smiled so wide and at that moment became so proud to be brown.

Fast forward to 2019 and that pride hasn’t left me. I don’t just let people mispronounce my name, I love dressing up and keeping up with Pakistani fashion, I happily eat desi food to my heart’s content and I take part in traditions any chance I get. My heritage is a huge part of who I am and is the reason I wanted to use my name in the name of this blog, even if it isn’t easy for everyone to say. I don’t want to adjust for everyone else. So with that baseline, I had to think of what to add to it and when I thought about why I was starting this blog, I added “real”. I want to be open about my life and share what’s happening in a stylish way. I genuinely want to be REAL with not only the world but with myself.

The start of this blog will be me sharing my travels with you all and grow from there. I’m so fortunate enough to be studying abroad in Paris at the Paris School of Business for my spring semester! I sit here, very excited but also anxious because in 11 days I will embark on this journey. I’m so excited to be able to write about what goes on in the next few months and then continue to do so when I come back. Thank you to everyone who told me to just do it and gave me the support I needed. Make sure you subscribe below and stay tuned to what’s going to be happening right here on “The Real Rumiya”. In my next post, I’ll show you my 2018 and after I’ll tell you all about how and why I’m studying abroad! So this is me, much love to you all.

-TRR

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