Tamara Ismail (Arts, 2nd year)

Q: Tell us about your snowboarding pursuits. "I love driving, I love laughing and making people laugh. I think I’d be in stand-up comedy. But mostly, I’ve always loved sports. When I was young, I was in swimming and then I started wearing hijab and it felt awkward and there were no burqinis around at the time. I also wanted to play soccer, but I didn’t have money at the time, since sports like soccer need money to be invested. I didn’t want to ask my mom to pay for me either. Last year though, my friend who is active in Vancouver Medina invited me to go snowboarding one day. I hesitated at first, but then I was like you know what, I live in Vancouver, there are mountains out here but I’ve never actually been snow boarding. She got me snow pants, I didn’t have gloves, I only had my normal jacket and my hijab, and we just had to rent the equipment. I started it and I fell in love with it! I loved how much you have to work, and the fact that as soon as you get it, its easy, the rush the fact that you’re outdoors your building muscle you’re building stamina and its just great fun. A perk for hijabis out there when you’re snowboarding you’re wearing the hijab like the hijab that we used to wear when we’re young. I loved that I felt comfortable as a hijabi and I’m all dressed and I’m having fun and I’m doing a sport." Q: Do you want to see more role models who don the hijab like you and who do it professionally? "Yeah why not! I’d love to do that, but my passion is somewhere else, I want to work in the medical field specifically in management. Because I feel that it’s always going to be in demand, and I feel it’s where people need help the most immediately. Also, my father passed away from lung cancer and I remember always helping him out around the house; it got to a point where it was hard for him to stay at home and he had to move to the hospital and I feel like the hospital needs people who are genuine enough and who are there to make the hospital feel like home." Q: So once you’ve done snowboarding and after you’ve had an entire session of snowboarding how do you feel? "I’ve been snowboarding now for a year. In the summer, I was like, love this sport there is no excuse I’m going to invest and I’m going to get my own gear and I’m going to go out there and I’m going to teach myself and that is what I did. I think money is an issue in this kind of sport because it is a lot of money, but there are so many used stores that offer more than half the price on equipment, if you really look for it and if you really want it. I got my Nike boots off craigslist for $50-$70 dollars, which is amazing and they’ve only been used three times. So you can find alternatives and save money." Q: What would you tell someone who wants to start snowboarding but is afraid of how funny they’ll look (falling again and again)? "I learned this in psychology, so there is avoidance conflict and approach conflict. People who have avoidance conflict are going to avoid doing something because they are afraid of being judged. You fall so many times at the beginning you actually hate your self because you’re like I can do this, why am I not able to do this. Especially when you start at the bunny/baby hill and everyone is falling, if you just forget who’s around you and you remember the times that you’ve gotten up you’ll keep going and keep at it. When I went why my friends, we fell so many time. Once you get it, you don’t go back. Who cares what people think, everyone is there to learn especially on the bunny hill. Even kids! If kids can do it so can you!"