On Being a Teenager in 2023

00:02 Peace to you all. I'm RaShiDa Aaliyah. I have chosen to interview my two youngest children of six, my daughter Zakiyah Aliyah and my son ibrahim Kaseem. I'm 43 years old. Today is Sunday, December 10, 2023 and we are recording from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Zakiyah.

00:23 Hi, my name is Akiah Alia. I'm 16 years old. Today is Sunday, Dec 10, 2023. I'm here speaking with my mother RaShiDa Leah and my brother Ibrahim Kassim. This we are in Philadelphia, Pennsyliaan.

00:42 Hello everyone. My name is Ibrahim Kassim. I am 15 years of age. Today is Sunday, December 10, 2023 and I'm speaking with my sister Zakiyah Aliyah and my mother RaShiDa Aliyah. I am recording this interview in Philadelphia Pennsyiavan. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you very much, Ibrahim and Zakiya. How you doing today, Zakiya? Fine, Wonderful. How are you? IB all right, Decent. Okay, so I'll get into the questions my beautiful beings and Zakiyah, like, like we said, I ask you first and then Ibrahim, you answer next. Okay? Okay. So first question. How does it feel being your age, Zakiya? 16. Right now in 2023. Is it fun? Boring, Scary? Annoying? Irritating? Your thoughts, ma'am. It's.

01:45 It's boring and annoying really, because of school and I don't really do a lot or much. I don't go outside. I don't have a phone to work to like get on. And this might be sad, but I don't have a lot of friends either. So. Yeah, it. Yeah, that's it.

02:16 But that's okay. I have one friend, my bestie. You know this. It's okay. We don't need millions of friends. We really don't. We really, really don't. Cool beans though. All right, so Ibrahim, same question to you, sir. How does it feel being your age Right now in 2023, the age of 15 and taller than everybody? Um, it's. I would say it's definitely interesting and also kind of boring. So it's like half and half. Okay, so now Zakiya said that it was boring because of the fact that know, like she doesn't do anything really. Don't go anywhere. You say it's boring. Why? It's kind of. I feel like there's like not much to do at my age. It makes a lot of sense. Well, let me ask you, what would you want to be doing at your age? Because you also said that it's interesting as well being 15 in 20, 23. So what would you want to be doing at your age? What would make it more fun? Honestly, I'm not sure I would. I would really have to think on that. I could take it. I could take it. What about you, Sky? What would make it more fun?

04:13 Go out partying. Just to. I get to do. Do more. Do more stuff. Like go outside and go to more places than just here.

04:29 I can understand that. All right, cool beans, cool beans. Next question. Zakiya, am I a strict parent?

04:39 Not at all. I mean, there's. There is some stuff that we cannot do better than that. No.

04:46 So, okay, what can't you do? Okay, wait, let me see. I'll ask. What can't. What can't you do? But, like, what is it that, like, shows that I'm not a strict parent for you? Not extremely strict. I'll put it that way.

05:05 So it would like, it would be more of, like. Because most parents are very hard on their children to, like, get good grades and, and be the very best and like, do like the, like do the best you can. And like, if you don't, then it's just like, you're not like, you're a bad child and stuff. And they can't really, like, do a lot of things. We don't do that. You. You don't. You don't pressure us to be the very best because this life is really hard and it's really hard to succeed in some things. So you're not. You're not like, you're not a realistic parent?

05:50 I try not to be.

05:52 You're very protective. So some things we can't do for. Some things we can.

05:58 Exactly, Mama bear. Sorry. Anyway, Ibrahim. And thank you, Zakaya. That was that. Okay. I dig it. All right. The minds of my teenagers. Okay. What about you, eBay? Do you think I am a strict parent? No. In your mind. Why not? Because I feel like. And just like my sister Zakiya said, there's things you let us do and things you don't let us do. But I feel like after our brother passed away, I feel like you started being more open to us doing more things because things can happen really fast and you never know what could happen tomorrow. So I feel like, yes, it is like you wanted. You want us to explore more things within age requirements and reason. Decent. Thank you so much. And then I would like to ask one more question. How does it feel? Because we. At 7 minutes and 35 seconds, and I only got 10 minutes. All right, this is fun. One more question. How does it feel being the youngest Zakaya of four older siblings and being an older sister.

07:58 Youngest. Being the youngest of four siblings, it's like. It's.

08:06 It.

08:06 I won't say it's weird, but it's more of the fact, like. And I won't say they're protective either, because they're not really protective. They're just like. But I don't know. It's like when I asked them about, like, when I was born, they. They will all say, like, they were happy that I was being born. Especially Khalil. He was. He was very happy, you know, when I was born, the genius in me, they were just, like, happy to have little sister. Brown was like another one.

08:47 She sure did. Not another one.

08:50 EB Having a younger brother, he doesn't really feel like a younger brother because he's taller than me. And I'm gonna say this. He's more responsible to me. He's. He's. He seems like. He seems like a more responsible person than me, so. But when I realized that he is my younger brother, it feels weird, but I like it.

09:20 I could dig it. I could dig it. All right, we got about half a minute left. Ibrahim, please tell me, how does it feel for you to be the youngest of five siblings and the oldest of none here on the soil? Honestly, I could say I'm fine with it because I know that my siblings care for me and. And they look out for me. And. Yeah, you know, I don't. I don't have a problem with it. That's cool beans. Well, this concludes this interview. Zakaya Ibrahim, I thank y'all so much for doing this interview for me, with me. This is so awesome because I didn't get a chance to be able to do this with Khalil. He not here, y'all. My last two teenagers. I love you, God King Ibrahim. I love you, Goddess Queen Zakaya. Okay. Absolutely. Fiverrs. Anyway, this concludes our interview. May peace remain upon you all. Thank you.