Masculinity and femininity
Masculine and Feminine. When hearing those two words you might immediately think of men and women. I wouldn’t blame you, many of us are told that men must be masculine and women must be feminine.
Masculine and Feminine. When hearing those two words you might immediately think of men and women. I wouldn’t blame you, many of us are told that men must be masculine and women must be feminine.
Hey there, I am back. Did you ever hold a diary as a child or even just a secret book? The kind of book where you’d write all of your thoughts and opinions. As a little kid, I grew up loving and appreciating writing. What I loved the most was expressing my points of view and wishes. Coming back home, I found a text dating back to when I was in the 4th grade at school, and I was pretty astonished and blessed to see how my ideas didn’t change that much. I was only 10 years old when I wrote the following text: To the thousand and one black mountains, to the heart of the forests of despair, the...
I have no idea how many times I cried myself to sleep, or felt like giving up on life because of all the messed up thoughts and mixed up feelings that kept buzzing around me; and because of the miserable things that kept happening to me, until recently. I began to recognize how many times I survived those storms. I started to realize, how strong I am. By simply waking up everyday and having a glass of water to keep my body hydrated from all the suffocating feelings and tears from the night before. By simply taking a bath with really cold water to revive my nerves from all the tiredness after...
It is 6 AM in the morning, I wake up and prepare myself for a job. When listening to the morning news I learn that more than 70.8 million people are displaced by civil and interstate wars. This is really shocking me, but then I ask myself who will help to bring peace on Earth, if not me? Creation of peace on earth is a duty of all human beings. While the majority of us enjoy peaceful conditions in our countries, our joy will be completed when we can help the people who are displaced and deprived of comfortable places to sleep, study or work for an income. In many parts of the world, people...
In a world of war, I searched for peace In a world of hate, I searched for love In a world of discrimination, I searched for acceptance In a world of racism, I searched for equality In a world of injustice, I searched for fairness But I found NONE. Then I decided I will be peace. By accepting my neighbour for who they are. Remember peace can be a reality if we do not make religion a barrier in loving my neighbour. Peace can be a reality if I am ready to put aside all differences and accept my neighbour with open arms. Peace starts with you and me. If we are not peaceful in our heart, we...
“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but don’t drink it all by yourself.” How many people like to take a walk on the beach on a hot summer’s day? I am a person that likes to do just this. If at any given moment I am blessed with an instant of free time, I like to accompany my family to walk along the shore and dip our toes in the Pacific to cool off. Undoubtedly, we are not the only people that like to do this when the weather gets a bit warmer than what is comfortable; even at our nearest beach to home there are hundreds of others doing the exact same thing. My entire life I have been a...
You have to decide it now. After 10 years from now what do you want tell yourself? Either you dream it, work for it, do it or it is just a fairy tale! If you do it, you will be proud in the crowd! Yes you will be. You will have the courage to stand against all those naysayers, all those negative preachers and the people who didn’t want you to do something big in your life. You will be bold, bold enough to shout loudly in a crowd "I did it!" It was your dream and you worked for it and you did it. On the other side, alas! If you won’t do it... If you won’t do the work now you will fail tomorrow...
Have you ever read “The Thing about Jellyfish” by Ali Benjamin? If not let me enlighten you. It is about a young girl, Suzy, proving that a jellyfish is the reason why her best friend passed on. But, in reality it is about grief, guilt and moving on. I truly recommend this book because of its message and themes that, I believe everyone is experiencing or will experience in their lives. It takes one moment to change or break us. One moment everything we had may disappear right before our eyes. It’s hard to take everything on by yourself. But the thing is you’re not by yourself. Always remember...
I am uncertain Uncertain of the future of my continent, Africa Uncertain of the realities I wish were myths What a devastating reality Piercing my heart-tarnishing my actual existence Shunning and shaming one brother Spreading the blood of one blood sister One own African blood From Liberia to Namibia, from Nigeria back to South Africa All around Africa, they say it's xenophobia But I say, it's ignorance in disguise and disgust Leaving me with so much uncertainty of the place I called home A home where the future holds no peace nor place Not for adults, children, or my unborn generations Am...
Entrepreneur - I remember the first time I heard this word I hoped that being one is not as hard as pronouncing it. When we are little angels (kids), all we dream of is growing up to be distinguished doctors, creative engineers, innovative teachers or even inspiring artists. But how many of us ever aspired to be an entrepreneur? My guess is, not many. Perhaps the reason is that we, as Arabs and especially Syrians who are residing in the Arab shell, still lack role models of successful Syrian entrepreneurs. A lack of mentors and hardship in accessing information are other reasons to build a...
Everyday many girls and women struggle with the thought of not being good enough. The standards that society holds up for us are so unrealistic and extremely damaging. The battle of body image starts very early on and it seems to be never ending. We need to change this. For our own sanity. For the generations to come. We need to learn to be more accepting of ourselves and more aware of what is beyond the skin.
I am a part of the 'iGeneration' and one of the few that have grown up in a technology-centered world - we are commonly known as the digital natives. Internet games dominated when I was 5 years old, Facebook was created when I was 3 years old, and smart phones replaced flip phones when I was just 11 years old. Being a millennial is not easy as some might think, the pressure that comes with living in the fast-changing world where you must catch up with everything is too much a task to constantly battle with daily. Growing up in this world where technology has always been readily available has...
Should we fight for peace? Well this is what happens in the world. Countries are trying to control the world through wars nowadays. We are trying to get peace through war. That’s the problem: This is just like throwing wood in the fire instead of water. For centuries we have been trying to get peace, but with no results. There are many examples that you could look at to understand what exactly I mean by this. If you take a look at human history you’ll see that we’ve fought many wars and many battles in the name of peace, but where has that really gotten us? It is 2017 and we still have “war...
1. Patience is key. 2. There is so much value in individuality. 3. Everything will be ok. 4. Forgiveness is not easy, but it is important. 5. Be kind to everyone. 6. Everyone is beautiful in their own unique way. 7. There is a reason for everything. 8. It's okay to be alone. 9. All emotions are valid -- the good and the bad. 10. Only do things that make you happy. 11. Do not feed into negativity. 12. Protect your mental well-being. 13. Spend more time with family and friends. 14. Find value in the smallest aspects of life. 15. Set time aside for you passions. 16. Don't be afraid to embrace who...
I guess I should apologize first: Using the past tense in the title could be considered a lie. Obviously, one can’t stop the shame entirely since that’s a natural urge. To tell the truth, I’m not the kind of person who gets ashamed easily. But there are a few things I felt uncomfortable with, even though I should be proud about them. That was a problem I struggled with for quite long time, so I’d like to tell you how I overcame it. To give a few examples: I felt insecure about being a feminist, and I felt insecure about being a LGTBQ-Supporter, even though I knew that both things were right...