Since I started at UT in 2011 as a scared little freshman, I have been involved with the Muslim Student Association on campus.
One thing has stayed consistent over the past four years, we all hang out on the third floor of the University Center.
Even though we are an official organization on campus, we don’t have a designated space or office, so we kind of just commandeered the tables in the UC. On any day, at any time, if you go to the third floor of the UC, you are guaranteed to hear us. To anyone who knows what I’m talking about, I apologize. The MSA has served as a family for a lot of us, a home away from home of sorts.
It’s like an automatic niche you can fit into with people who you share a common trait with: your faith. When you are a minority at a large university like UT you might encounter situations and troubles that only your fellow minorities can relate to. It’s important to have that safe space. The MSA is also one of the most diverse student organizations that I have ever been a part of. You’ll find people from different backgrounds and majors, and almost everyone is bilingual.
If you happen to venture to the third floor you might hear us discussing identity politics and how we fit in as Americans when most of our parents are immigrants. You might hear us tell stories of our childhood and our favorite memories from Eid, the Islamic holiday. Sometimes we talk about our favorite foods from our parent’s home countries and you even might see us eating it too. We also talk about things everyone does, like how unfair professors can be, or who’s winning in our fantasy basketball league, or how the lady that works at Chick-fil-A downstairs is our favorite person in the world.
You might catch a glimpse of some of us standing by the computers, bowing and prostrating, or praying, as we know it. We are up there so much; we have befriended the custodians and the people that work in the SGA office next door. This semester is a little bittersweet because I will be graduating (God willing) and leaving my beloved MSA behind. The third floor wont be here for long either. The UC is going to close this spring and eventually it will be torn down, and with it our space on the third floor.
In the meantime if you ever have a quick break between classes and you like talking and eating brownies (which we occasionally like to bake and share), you’re always welcome at our table. Well technically It’s not “our” table but you get the gist.
Hawa Henderson is a senior in microbiology. She can be reached at [email protected].
