June, 2013
Sikh Youth Alliance of North America (Syana) Camp was my first experience alone away from home. I was both nervous and ecstatic. Nervous to be away from home, but ecstatic to make new friends and ready to embark upon new adventures with them. Throughout the camp, I had done many things: prayed with my sangat (holy congregation), learned about my own history, and played cops and robbers in the woods with my new friends. I felt like I was a part of the Syana family, but there was one thing that distinguished me from everyone else - unlike me, everyone had long, lush hair that was either tied back with a chunni (cloth) or tied into a bun and wrapped in a dastar (turban). My veerjis (brothers) and bhenjis (sisters) inspired me, I wanted to be just as driven and just as humble. I wanted to find out the purpose behind my faith, the reason why I should keep my hair like my veerjis and bhenjis at camp. Ever since then, I decided to start growing my hair. This meant learning how to tie a patka all by myself. It was a slow journey but eventually I started wearing a dastaar and I learned how to tie a pagh! My experience on my own spiritual journey helped my family on theirs as well. Now, my ten year old brother just wore his first patka!
Overall, I learned that we keep our hair as a symbol of identity given by our tenth master, Guru Gobind Singh; we were given this identity so that we can be spotted in a crowd, having a voice in times of injustice. Taking note of this, I decided to keep my hair, along with my Sikhi, joining the sons and daughters of Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
- Anonymous