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<\/p>\nBahar Motarjemi<\/p>\n
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One thing that being Persian has taught me is that we can\u2019t succeed in any way if we don\u2019t celebrate what we\u2019ve done. In the relatively short amount of time I\u2019ve been alive, I have been to hundreds of birthdays and Persian parties. In every event, there are some aspects\u2014like the dance floor, the music, the people\u2014that haven\u2019t changed in all my life. I find happiness in these parties, not from materialistic things, but from pride in my culture or someone\u2019s accomplishments. In general, I hold all Persian events very close to my heart because I feel like I am a part of a community, a comforting group of people.\u00a0Upon closer reflection into every Persian event I\u2019ve gone to, I\u2019ve realized that celebration is a necessary, but often overlooked, part of our lives.<\/p>\n
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School is an environment where it can be difficult to apply this celebratory outlook. At an early age, I realized that this optimistic point of view was not as prominent in other people\u2019s lives. I believe that in certain contexts, our perspective on school does affect our own performance. Whether we downplay our accomplishments or congratulate ourselves can determine how we face other problems. How we treat a homework assignment can affect how we perform on a test. At first, I felt torn as to what the right mindset was in order to succeed in school, but I ultimately decided to hone more of the values that I had seen present in my upbringing and my relationship with my culture.<\/p>\n
\nI didn\u2019t realize the effects of my attitude until I noticed many, many people at school feeling horribly for themselves for getting a good grade, but not an excellent one. I observed so many of my classmates punish themselves for average performance, confining themselves to their rooms to study and study in an effort to reach their own extremely high standards. I\u2019ve been deemed \u201clazy\u201d by some of my peers for not going by their standards, but using my own experiences. Being proud of\u00a0just doing\u00a0<\/i>helps, not harms, my future. After a difficult test or challenging day in school, I\u2019ll call my friends or watch a favorite movie, something that does not involve thinking about my grades or school. After rewarding myself, I feel a lot more compelled to do my homework and study in a relaxing, easygoing manner. When I see my friends struggle, I try to remind them they don\u2019t have to be as hard on themselves as they are, that they have worked and accomplished many things already in their academic careers. In times when I say these things, I feel really grateful to have grown up in a community that embraced celebration of achievements as much as it did.<\/p>\n
\nMy mom might celebrate more than even I do. I love hearing about what she has succeeded in her day, from as little as finishing paperwork to working in a hospital. My mom has worked hard all her life to be where she is now, but what has made her a better person is her ability to stop and recognize that she has worked hard and that she is deserving. This way of thinking not only applies to her, as she smiles and celebrates every good thing I\u2019ve done. No one has said the words \u201c I\u2019m so proud of you, we need to celebrate\u201d more than my mom. I didn\u2019t realize this at first, but now I am eternally grateful for every time she has ever said it, and I don\u2019t think I would be the way I am now if it wasn\u2019t for her. Nothing is too little of a success to proudly\u00a0tell our Persian aunts and uncles, no occasion too small to gather people and share in collective enjoyment. I used to think it was weird how many pictures and stories of me my mom would share with my family, but of course now I realize it affected me in a positive way. My family, like my mom, share this unconditional love for people and feel happy for the success of others. Because of this, I have received endless support for my endeavors in life.<\/p>\n
The pandemic was a challenging time for all of us\u2014isolation from our world, our friends, and our families. We relied on our technology to allow us to connect with people, to do our schoolwork, to go to a job, and more. At the height of the pandemic, I was graduating from elementary school, and although it felt amazing, the fact I couldn\u2019t be with my friends made the graduation feel very bittersweet. Even being only 12 years old, I realized just how much of the graduation experience I was missing out on due to the pandemic.\u00a0A few days later, my friends and I all video called each other on Nowruz. We tried our best to speak positively about our lives, how thankful we were to celebrate Nowruz with our families, how lucky we were for us and our families to be safe. My parents were calling their friends and families; so were practically everyone I knew. Celebrating a Persian holiday during the pandemic was a complicated task, but the way our community approached it with gratitude and overall celebration of the year made all the difference in our lives. My friends and family tried to be as happy as they could, and we started the new year with hope for happiness and prosperity.<\/p>\n
My Persian heritage\u2019s own perspective has helped me feel more prepared for any of life\u2019s difficulties. Finding a reason to be happy is a tool that can apply to any situation, and I will definitely use it for the rest of my life. Celebration is deeply rooted in our Persian culture, and it has allowed us to develop deeper and more personal connections with people, as well as guide us through new situations and circumstances when we feel lost.<\/p>\n
Bahar Motarjemi is a sophomore at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego. She is passionate about writing and looks forward to continuing her writing journey in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How Persian Parties Help Us Thrive Bahar Motarjemi One thing that being Persian has taught me is that we can\u2019t succeed in any way if we don\u2019t celebrate what we\u2019ve done. In the relatively short amount of time I\u2019ve been alive, I have been to hundreds of birthdays and Persian parties. In every event, there<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n