Test of Today - Oversharing

November 19th, 2025

Salam friends.

I am the type to overshare. I struggle to know how much information too much information is. A comment I received more times than I can count from my teachers was to lessen the regurgitation of facts and focus on the argument.

My response would always be “don’t facts prove your argument?” I struggle to balance my writing with facts, feelings, and objective, unique observations. I would stray away from including verbose quotations for the risk that I might be flagged for plagiarism.

Watching an episode of Survivor today, I unexpectedly started sobbing when a contestant shared her experience with autism and the resulting anxieties and challenges, she faces. She was overwhelmed by the support she felt, and I felt so happy for her. For her experience to be validated and for her to share her diagnosis, despite the risk that people would use that to potentially take advantage of her, brought a warmth to my heart I haven’t felt in some time.

As someone who was always told to filter their words and thoughts, because they were excessive, irrelevant, or even seen as rude, I had to learn to pick and choose when I could be myself. I knew that not everyone would be receptive to the topics of discussion I often veer to and before certain situations, I have to force myself to think of conversation points that won’t “trigger” or cause tension, often those topics are political or dealing with social justice issues.

In the past few years, I became somewhat of a hermit. I avoided social situations, for a myriad of reasons. Some days, I was in genuine pain. Other days, I couldn’t emotionally regulate. The remaining days, I couldn’t bring myself to normalize social entertainment, while an ongoing genocide was and is occurring against various communities. I didn’t and still often don’t know how to act “normally” anymore.

Many friendships were lost during this time. I was asked repeatedly if I was able to share content that wasn’t depressing, to maybe share some memes. My only response was, I do post memes, about the abysmal state of our world, and if they didn’t like it, they could leave my circle.

I set up a no tolerance policy in my personal life. I do not normalize relationships with people who support Zionism or are neutral about the ongoing oppression and erasure of millions around the globe, at the hands of any colonial government. I do not support any form of supremacy, be that white supremacy, Jewish supremacy, or Islamic supremacy. I say this as a Muslim, and I truly believe that any Muslim should agree, no human is above another and none can be judged except for by Allah SWT.

Do I regret taking such a staunch stance? Absolutely not.

Do I regret that I called out Zionist sympathizers and still do? Nope.

Do I wish that I shared less? No. I wish I shared more.

I wish that I spent as much time censoring myself and questioning my content for fear of rejection or the invariable social consequences. I wish that I was as firm in my speech as I am in my beliefs.

The only regret I have is that I suppressed my own voice, because I thought I could highlight the voices that needed to be heard more. Instead, I needed and need to continue to do both.

It should not be considered oversharing – it should be considered as raising awareness or a form of social education. It was imperative in my upbringing that I was exposed to people of different ethnicities and religions, I was raised with the reminder that we are all born the same, that nothing sets us apart except for the acts we commit in this life. Be they good or bad, that is how we will be remembered.  

Now I’m not saying I will be sharing all aspects of my personal and daily life; however, I think this challenge has reminded me the importance of community. Community can alienate or validate. Just as with Survivor, I was able to find some community that shared my views on the state of the world, and the more I continued to share, I received messages from people I hadn’t heard from in years, saying thank you. They were thanking me for being as vocal as I was, even though I was feeling guilty for not doing enough.

The first time I was thanked for sharing the resources I did, I cried, well more like sobbed. I was shaken by the fact that someone felt that I made a difference in their life, that they were inspired to speak out more, despite most of our “community” remaining silent.

In that moment, I knew that all the so-called friends I had lost, were not meant to be my friends.

In Islam, we are advised that the circle of people we choose to associate with reflect who we are. Therefore, I chose and still choose to fill my circle with people who share the same values and do their best to live by them.

To be clear, those values are:

1.      Respect and kindness – to people, animals, and the environment.

2.      Tolerance of all identities (excluding those that require supremacy against others ie Zionism or MAGA)

If you fit into the two categories above, then you’ve likely passed the requirements to be my friend, not that I’m accepting applications for that right now anyway. Just kidding.

While one can never have too many friends, its important to be selective and cautious. My mother always warned me when she noticed certain “friends” were not acting as genuine, and she always turned out to be right in the end. It wasn’t until I lost touch with so many people at once that I learned the same lesson for myself.

In case you don’t feel supported by your friends, ask yourself if these friends reflect who you are, and who you want to be. If the answer is no, then maybe they aren’t the friends for you.

Your friends won’t consider your thoughts and feelings as “oversharing” nonsense. They will see value in your words, and they will respond in kind.

Remember that there is always a community out there for you, you might just have to find yourself first.

Sending love to all today.

Salam.