Never in my mind did I think that in anyway I would convert to Islam. One day during my online class, I received a text from my friend on Instagram, and we spoke about Islam, and he mentioned to me the words for the Shahada.
Those words at the time I said silently in my head, I kept quiet about it for fear that I would be told to leave Islam if my parents found out. Changes slowly were made at my job and over the months. At work, I mentally struggled not to want to eat pork. Whenever my lunch break came up, I had to inform the kitchen about my dietary changes.
I also asked my friends if the meat I was about to eat or did eat was pork in any way. It helped me to relax and start the journey down the road of being a brand new Muslim. During this time, I slowly started to want to learn more about Islam and how to be a good Muslim, so I reached out to my friends on Instagram daily, and when I had questions about something, I asked them. The hardest thing for me was learning to pray and how to speak Arabic.
One night I recall having a hard time going to sleep, and it hit me that I had to learn Arabic. I found an app and made some friends, and one of them agreed to teach me Arabic. During Ramadan came the big test to do my first fasting ever and to pray. I lasted four days during Ramadan.
After a few months, I realized that I no longer missed eating pork. It became easy for me not to eat pork, but to this day, I struggle with praying. I am hoping to take my shahada soon; my friends are saying it is important for me to do so. I eventually decided to send away some books on Islam, so I could start reading and gaining knowledge on being a Muslim.
Amira from the USA