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Me (the one with the glasses) and my best friend at our High School graduation

My name is Noorulain Siddiqui. My grandmother gave me the name since Noor means "light", ul means "of", ain means "eyes" and Siddiqui means "one who tells the truth". I was born in Pakistan in 1989 and spent the first 10 years of my life moving around the country. In 1999 while my mom, brother and I were living in the city of Bahawalpur my dad was living in Lahore because there were so few job opportunities in Bahwalpur. It was a stroke of luck that my dad's application for a lottery visa to America was selected that year. After the selection, it all seemed to just flow and we had the interview in less than a month, we cleared the medical exams and we got out visas on the day of the interviews. In less than six months I immigrated to America and started fifth grade here.

I attended 5th grade at P.S. 179 where I was placed in the lowest ranking class. I had some difficulty acclimating to the school environment due to cultural differences, since I had the tendency to stand up when I answered questions, I didn't understand colloquial language, and most of all I spoke and wrote British English. Thus I spent my first year in America feeling extremely unintelligent.Which went away quickly when I realized that I knew a lot of Math.

Me and my family. That is my dad on the far left, me next to him, my mom next to me, and my baby brother next to her.

I graduated P.S. 179 in 2000 and attended Montauk Junior High School till 2003, even though Montauk stopped meeting city requirements in 2001-2002. Fortunately I was able to gain admission to Stuyvesant High school where I actually received an education for the first time. I graduated in the top 4% of my class. I was the winner of New York City's Moot Court Competition and had the opportunity to argue in front of Second Circuit Justices.

I am currently attending Baruch College and have not decided upon a major. It turns out I am not business oriented but humanities oriented, which will most likely horrify my parents. I am still pretending to be a business person, and hopefully it will work out.

My mom's whole family at my younger uncle's wedding.

I have been back to Pakistan twice in the past 8.5 years. I once left in 2000 after the completion of 5th grade and my mom intended to have my brother, her and me to live there, except my dad missed us and we returned within 3 months. I visisted again in 2003 after I completed junior high school for my uncle's wedding. The wedding was the last great family affair on my mom's side of the family, since my uncle was the youngest and only sibling who was unmarried by 2003. Now they all intend to wait for me to get married to have everyone get together again. I had planned on visiting after highschool ended in 2007; however, the political climate in the country was so unstable that my parents decided that it would be best if we we waited till things stabilized a bit to visit.

Email:noorulain.siddiqui@baruchmail.cuny.edu