(MIP-2) As Nusrat struggles to cope with loss she begins to feel helpless, leading her to neglect herself and help others. (SIP-A) Throughout her journey from Elaine to Nusrat, and through her journey as Nusrat in the Middle East, Nusrat dedicated excessive amounts of her time to trying to help others as a volunteer and teacher, which takes control of her life as she neglects herself. (STEWE-1) As Elaine strayed further and further from the life knew and used to associate her livelihood with, she fills every second she can with volunteer work. Her internal obligation to help everything be better, and better the world in the process creates an overwhelming dominance in Elaine’s life until she is able to find something she wants to fill it with.
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Elaine started making room in her crazy life of helping things to accept a new religion and a new her, only adding to the neglection of Elaine as she leaves more and more of her life behind to become an Islamic teacher. Her distraction of working at the the animal shelter, and her conversion to a new set of beliefs work together to create a new Elaine: a Nusrat. (STEWE-2) Nusrat’s path as a teacher and a volunteer doesn’t end in her conversion, it carries over into her Islamic life, and her new identity. The one major constant in the lives of Elaine and Nusrat is that no matter what name she gives herself, or what religion she believes in, she wants to help and heal and honor that little girl with a cat and some popsicle sticks. While her outlet does evolve from the animals in need to refugees in need. Nusrat becomes the teacher she has always dreamed of being, granting herself the opportunity to help a whole new array of people. She moves to a part of the world where the people in need are endless, and the opportunities to satisfy her internal hunger are …show more content…
(SIP-A) Nusrat is able to come to an eventual peace and acceptance of her parents and all they represented in her through her various experiences as Nusrat. (STEWE-1) Through Nusrat’s journey of helping everyone and everything she became a teacher, opening her up to the world of children. Although she does not become a parent herself, she experiences a small snippet of what that could be like through caring for and educating refugees. Nusrat’s Persimmon tree school goes further than sitting in a circle pondering constellations and solving arithmetic. She always went further into deep emotional bonds to the students as she saw those in need and jumped to their aid. After watching students grow and becoming protective of them she is emotionally injured as she says goodbye to them. As two students whom Nusrat loves leave her “It pains her to think of the boys having too little to eat, no medical care, no education” (173). Nusrat may not be their mother, but the worry she feels for those boys is genuine, motherly pain leading her to empathize all the pain and worry she caused her parents. In this moment Nusrat is an able to help, and she sees all of the help and love that she blocked out as a child. Through constant repetitive loss Nusrat discovers how it feels to watch a child fall from potential and hope for a good life which she uses to
Elaine started making room in her crazy life of helping things to accept a new religion and a new her, only adding to the neglection of Elaine as she leaves more and more of her life behind to become an Islamic teacher. Her distraction of working at the the animal shelter, and her conversion to a new set of beliefs work together to create a new Elaine: a Nusrat. (STEWE-2) Nusrat’s path as a teacher and a volunteer doesn’t end in her conversion, it carries over into her Islamic life, and her new identity. The one major constant in the lives of Elaine and Nusrat is that no matter what name she gives herself, or what religion she believes in, she wants to help and heal and honor that little girl with a cat and some popsicle sticks. While her outlet does evolve from the animals in need to refugees in need. Nusrat becomes the teacher she has always dreamed of being, granting herself the opportunity to help a whole new array of people. She moves to a part of the world where the people in need are endless, and the opportunities to satisfy her internal hunger are …show more content…
(SIP-A) Nusrat is able to come to an eventual peace and acceptance of her parents and all they represented in her through her various experiences as Nusrat. (STEWE-1) Through Nusrat’s journey of helping everyone and everything she became a teacher, opening her up to the world of children. Although she does not become a parent herself, she experiences a small snippet of what that could be like through caring for and educating refugees. Nusrat’s Persimmon tree school goes further than sitting in a circle pondering constellations and solving arithmetic. She always went further into deep emotional bonds to the students as she saw those in need and jumped to their aid. After watching students grow and becoming protective of them she is emotionally injured as she says goodbye to them. As two students whom Nusrat loves leave her “It pains her to think of the boys having too little to eat, no medical care, no education” (173). Nusrat may not be their mother, but the worry she feels for those boys is genuine, motherly pain leading her to empathize all the pain and worry she caused her parents. In this moment Nusrat is an able to help, and she sees all of the help and love that she blocked out as a child. Through constant repetitive loss Nusrat discovers how it feels to watch a child fall from potential and hope for a good life which she uses to