On Why I Muse Over the Complexities of the Threshold

Growing up as a second-generation immigrant isn't easy. Add in a religion and ingrained culture that seems to have polar opposite views as the new country you currently reside in doesn't help either.

When I was growing up, the decision of which view to assimilate into the American acceptability and which to maintain in the Egyptian propriety became one of the hardest hurdles to overcome. So, I did everything by the book. The Egyptian book. My second home was my church. Everything they said I took for gospel, regardless if they used the actual religious dogma or the old country's justifications to proclaim it was right . For example, I remember a Sunday school class when I was in elementary school that talked about dressing appropriately for church because it was the house of God--something that any Christian religion would advocate. When we reached our teen years, one teacher who was clearly new to the country told us to dress appropriately because if we didn't, we would cause the men in church to sin--an extreme Middle Eastern cultural view of the two sexes. She went on to say that men were the weaker sex and it was our job as women to make sure we dressed in a way that wouldn't tempt them to think sexual thoughts. If we did, then we were responsible for their sin and we would get punished for it--a more severe punishment than the man who performed the actual impure thought.

Apparently, this woman never got the memo that women have hormones and an imagination as well.

But I did as they asked because, hey, it was much easier to listen to one school of thought than two. You see, there weren't any websites like mine out there; those that tackled the identity crisis. Basically, there were two types of websites that discussed the Coptic community: those that alerted others to the persecution in the Middle East and those that enlightened others of the Coptic Orthodox beliefs. That was it. And for a while, I was fine with that. But then something changed. Something that made me see the "gray-area" light.

I went to college.

I saw all different types of cultures, beliefs, and daily practices from people who seemed undoubtably confident in what they were doing. I began debating what could I ease up on without going against my religion and the main positive aspects of Coptic culture. And so I created this blog.

It became clear to me that I needed to set a foundation of our roots before I got into the tangled mess of American and Coptic notions: roots like correcting the misconception that Copts are Arabs, that we come from the Church of the Martyrs, and the history behind our notorious cross tattoos. By doing that, I was then able to discuss whether we should get tattooed or not, my views on dancing, when it's appropriate to date. These are all problems we go through today.

I look forward to continuing this blog and addressing other issues that can help Coptic teens ease into the American society without feeling like they left their ethnicity back in the old country.