Fasting, Investment Banking and Marriage!

Its all happening. Everything is changing. Thankfully things on the health front are pretty static, but everything else is in transition. The month of Ramadhan has been testing, but its very good to be able to participate fully in it this year. Work wise, the world of investment banking is changing by the minute.

There are huge changes a foot in the next 8 weeks in most other aspects of my life also.

I'm getting married, going to LA for a special screening of the film 'Jesus in India' in which i appear, and hopefully moving from living with my parents to living with my wife in our own place.

All that within a period of about 8 weeks.

The question arises who am i marrying - and the answer to this is hyper-relevant for my blog. Mrs-Arif-to-be is also a hodgkin's lymphoma survivor. We had very similar stories of diagnosis and treatment. She was a stage IIA with enlarged nodes in her chest. She had 3 cycles of ABVD and was / is part of a clinical trial where she was randomly chosen to either have radiotherapy or not - she didnt have any. Just as she was completing her treatment i was starting mine yet it wasnt till after treatment that we got in touch via a cancer support forum. Sharing with someone of a similar age who REALLY knows what you are going through is something very special. We both have benefited from that ever since. She works as a bookseller and during her degree in race and ethnic studies with philosophy she took a year of Islamic studies and was the only non-Muslim in the class - but thats another story...

So its all happening - i got a lot to look forward and if i compare how bright the future is looking today compared with this time last year its quite amazing.

So even as the markets tumble, and as i sit here counting down the hours till i can eat again, and knowing my bank balance is going to take a hammering over the next few weeks, i still have a smile on my face and i'm looking forward to the future.

Comments

[Rachel]

Mrs-Arif-to-be likes this blog post very much!

Rach x

[Kate]

Wonderful Post, I wish you both every happiness in your lives together. Kate