It is hard to be an activist in a world where everybody expects a girl to be soft and cute at all times. And I can tell because I have been bullied my entire childhood and during my teenage years. I was called “bossy” most of the times, or worse, “boyish girl”. Today, as a grown up, the situation isn't much different. It wasn’t easy for me to put up with all the pressure. But I did. I knew what I had was bigger than their words and the names they were calling me. Frankly, what they thought is going to break me, broke them, and made me stronger. One year ago, I read an article with the title...

How many times have you ever thought of this question: “Who inspires you?” I know it might seem easy. But trust me, it is not. Especially when your answer should be clear and honest, identifying the person who has impacted your past and will continue to impact your future. I have spent a week already brainstorming who might be that person. I don’t want to give a random answer. I identified several criteria for what makes a person influential. I looked up the characteristics of influential people. According to all the articles I read my person should hold these traits: 1- He must be a leader of...

My name is Salam and I am from Syria. Probably not many know where Syria is on the map. However, my aim is not to further explain you the geographical location of my country. My aim is to let those who never heard the word “Syria”, as well as those who heard it already, know how Syrian youth can be a great added value no matter where they are. The exact translation of my name in English is “Peace”. I start to realize how lucky I am to have such a powerful name, especially at a time when the meaning itself is lost in a big dark sea filled with war and inequity. When I turned 18, crises hit. And...

The world wants us to leave it better than we found it, it wants us to be the change, by speaking up and being the first domino. For a line of dominos to fall, one domino has to fall first, which leaves no choice for the others but to fall. For me, being a domino means doing the hardest things, especially when they are needed with the hope that others will follow soon. But let’s put the light on a very important topic, which is fear. Some will say “We are fearless!”, but none of them is unfraid of the consequences of their fall, and few of them are truly willing to be the next domino. Fear has...

Success comes from the little seeds we plant every day despite the challenges we face, and no idea will work unless we do the work. We have only one life and we shouldn’t waste it!! The road to success is through commitment, and commitment happens when we take a real ACTIONS. Taking massive action in our lives is the only way that we are going to achieve our goals, dreams, and desires. Wake up every day with the mantra “TAKE ACTION” and watch the results unfold in your life. Your life would be better if you took the action you’ve been avoiding for ages. You should have the courage to stand...

Many people think about getting a leadership position, but they don’t think about the mission. It’s the mission that brings you the position. I have come to learn that if you are driven by a mission, everything will come with it including your dream position. So many times I have spoken about how I have tried a lot to be a member in any organization or initiative to gain more experience and knowledge and to find a good and suitable job, and I faced lots of difficulties to achieve this and to join any team or NGO. One day when I was coming back home with many copies of my CV, I asked myself...

Every time I meet someone, I always ask myself whether they have a goal in their lives or a destination they want to reach. I have met many people who had no goals in their lives. And if they had one, they did not know how to reach it. One day I met a girl by chance and we talked about a writer and inspirational speaker called Simon Sinek. He wrote a book called 'Start with Why?' which offers a great idea: why are some companies or some people more successful than others? Or how can I move towards achieving my goal more accurately and more clearly? In fact, I did not read the book directly...

"How did I survive yesterday?" You wake up today and ask yourself. This is an automatically generated question from our brain to cope with an inconvenience that happened or a letdown that kept you disturbed. Having the option to deal with awful days is a particularly significant expertise to acquire throughout everyday life, since awful days are inescapable, and in the event that they're not taken care of usefully, they can turn from awful "days", into weeks and even months. Regularly, you may neglect to perceive when you're having an awful day, or you may even attempt to keep away from your...

Love can be frightening, love can be overwhelming , love can be hard. Ever thought about how much effort does love require? How long would it take to heal from different experiences to open the doors for another? Sure you did. But , among all of the stigmas and stereotypes of love we might come across, one love remains away from the spotlight, waiting patiently to be spotted. The feeling of love when you wake up early in the morning to witness birds singing along with the clouds racing towards the horizon,the small cold breeze that feels your face softly in summer nights. Those feelings that...

For the beginning years of my life, I have been raised in a house where gender-equality is a solid and unbreakable pillar. In fact, even when my parents planned the structure of our household, they wished to have an equal number of girls and boys. To their surprise, my brother and I were born. They named me Salam (the Arabic translation of Peace) and his name is Yaman. A few years later, I started to notice society’s fabric outside of our house’s boundaries. Later in my teenage years, my peers pointed out my relationship to both my father and brother as being “different.” I have a strong...

Toxicity! Unfortunately, it is not only found in your food. Surprisingly, it can also be in people. Toxic people can be very difficult to deal with and very poisoning to your life and relationships. They drain your energy and motivation, they are constantly unhappy for something, their pessimism gets to your head and they can ruin your day everyday - if you allow them. We all have these people connected to us. Whether we like it or not. Identifying poisonous personalities, or toxic people as I like to call them, is crucial. They can be a friend, a colleague or a family member who constantly...

Are you keen to recreate your development path, get rid of bad habits and pick up good ones? Or will you welcome your new year with a boring to-do list from this year? If you are ready to make changes, accept challenges and develop your strategies for a better lifestyle, then this article is definitely yours to read and share with friends. Surprisingly, it will be 2018 in only one week. I’m excited and full of adrenaline, and I know you are, too. However, like all of us, I still have many things to do before the year ends and before I’m ready to take hold of my new year’s resolutions. Every...

In 2011, something major happened in my country, Syria. It forced me to change and somehow made me become the person I had always dreamed of becoming. Regardless of the painful and tragic human losses and the dramatic damage in infrastructure, I kept looking for a way to cope with the new reality. I was only 18 years old when the crisis in Syria started. I had plenty of dreams and ambitions that I wanted to accomplish once I graduate from high school. It all collapsed in a moment. It took me a total of 2 years to realize that in spite of the fact that we can’t control opportunities and threats...

Living your best years, your 20s, in a conflict zone is not very much what I dreamed of when I was 18. At least, I didn’t dream to live it this way. Growing up in Syria I had very big ambitions and expectations for this period, specifically, given what I heard and saw in movies. However, it turns out to be way harder in real life. Honestly - I went through very bad times at the beginning of my 20s. I felt incapable of changing my reality, depression and loss of hope were the result. I had very big dreams with very little indicators that any of them will ever become reality. Not knowing what...

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...

Worthy gains come with a price; an expensive one I mean. Many came to life and thought about making a difference and standing out from the crowd. These people are determined, strong and passionate about their causes. They don’t work to get their faces on cover pages of magazines. Because fame is the last thing they think about while working. People think fame is an indicator for the greatness of the work you do. They are wrong. Because fame is the sword that ruins sustainability for all that you have been building. Talking about success indicators: I would like to highlight what I think is the...