One of our most recent quizzes asked the class to choose a name from a list of the 99 names of Allah. Right away i picked Al-Aziz, The Victorious One. Now, I don’t proclaim to be religious, but I respect religious institutions and that name stood out from all the rest. If you read my blog titled “Minus One” then you’d know we lost a team member. I took this quiz during the time we were rethinking the direction of our project.  Our team set up of a meeting with our TA and instructors. We were able to organize our ideas into a cohesive digital  research project. So, after consulting with our TA and our instructors we are back in motion!  Although we still have research, archiving and mapping to achieve, today I feel victorious.  Our instructors provided us with some great advice and direction. We have finalized our location and decided on a cohesive topic that fits our own interests perfectly. We will not be discussing childbirth, education and medicine. While reevaluating our roles and communicating about our sources, we found we were able to take some things out and put some things in.  Readjusting was another unforeseen challenge but it provided us with an opportunity to really dig deeper into brainstorming. Because our team was in the beginning stages of our project there was room and time to make the necessary rearrangements. So, we came to a consensus and we’ve decided to that take a closer look at the Uyghur society in the autonomous region of Xinjian China.  My teammates have revamped their topics to reflect a more harmonized subject matter. I’m excited to say the least. My research has increased. My level of interest has increased. The correspondence between myself and my team mates has improved tremendously. We have already started to locate some interesting places with the Uyghur region. Again, I feel victorious. For me, it’s important to note the unforeseen challenges when working this a project like this. Losing a team member and rearranging our entire focus definitely threw a curve ball into our plans. Nevertheless, we are making huge strides towards a fantastic, digital, never seen before analysis about women, queer identities, sexuality, femininity, beauty and body images in the autonomous region of the Uyghur society.
The lesson here is all about pushing forward even through adversity. Again, I’m inspired by Xuan Zang’s historic journey. We definitely hit a bump in the road. No pun attended. The team feels more enthusiastic about the overall project. (I think they feel victorious too) I don’t want to start the celebration to soon but it feels wonderful to know we are on the right track. Still, there is so much more work to do but we have proved that we can get past the challenges and move forward. In hindsight, I’m glad that losing a member and changing our topic happened sooner rather than later. I can’t imagine how unbelievably difficult it would have been to rearranged our topic and reconstruct our overall thesis in the middle of research or near the end of the project. So, as we move on in our Silk Road journey, I look forward to encountering some interesting pieces of information and working more closely with my team. We are one dedicated group. We will not give up yes, and we are victorious. Peace family.