Thirteen years ago, on Sep. 11th, a huge change happened to my life personally, and to many lives and souls all around the world. We were expecting a baby, my mother was scheduled to have my younger brother on September 11th, 2001. I was going to have a baby after me, which meant that the amount of the love that I had as a last child was on the risk of decreasing gradually after he opens his eyes to the lights of the world. I believe that I was either four, or five years old, yet memories of that day are still stuck in my mind. I woke up in the early morning to go to the Kindergarten, while my mother was in the hospital.
I went back home to see the color blue decorating our guests' room, and then I realized that I have a baby brother named after my grandfather: Fahad. I was really happy indeed, I wanted to see this little and new member of the family, and most importantly, I wanted to see my mom. As my father had told me when I got older: after the birth of my brother he left the hospital to go buy some chocolates, and after about two hours he heard on his car's radio that there has been a recent attack to two towers in New York City, and right after that he received a phone call from one of his friends to tell him about all the details.
An attack, thousands have died, and a shocked father on the phone who didn't know whether he was happy upon the birth of his son, or sad about the fact that many innocent lives died in vein.
Thirteen years later, on the exact same day. I am in the country where that attack happened and not in KG anymore. While my brother is at our house in Saudi, with no more blue decorations to celebrate his birthday, only a very delicious chocolate cake. I didn't know what to expect on this day since I'm Saudi, yet that attack doesn't define us in any way possible, neither does is define our religion. We are different, one bad person will never represent a nation.
My host-mother had an idea for me to break some wrong images about my country. So, since she's a principle of a school, I went with her there, and gave presentations. The best way to solve any misunderstanding is to talk, and so I did that, I talked and tried my best to have everything come from my heart. This is why I'm here, to influence something and make a difference. But the reputation of my host-mother's school (The AEC) is known for having -with all of my respect- the bad students who may have bad grades, or have done some bad things. Now that's what I heard, but since she's the principle I went there knowing that I'll find many interesting people.
The first thing that I've noticed there is that the students were really respectful, and all of them knew the system of the school, classes, and teachers when they had arrived. Their reputation didn't define them at all, and I was really happy to see them asking, responding, and actually: discussing things with me about my country.
I gave five presentation, and I can mark 9/11/2014 as a great day in my life, because I believe that I helped in changing a wrong image. "You're a normal girl just like us!" One of the girls said. Yes, I'm normal, and I'm just like anyone else. We are all equal, the history is just a past, therefore the present shouldn't be judged based on it. I myself, a sixteen-year-old Saudi and Muslim girl who wears a headscarf shouldn't be judged by that. And I strongly believe that I have achieved my goal yesterday between the students and staff of the AEC who turned out to be great people.
The whole world is sharing sadness on 9/11, and I share the same feelings too, yet they're mixed with a bunch of happy birthday wishes to my brother, and a lot of ''Well done.'' and ''Great job.'' emails from my program's office in Saudi for doing what I came here for: representing the real image of country. The five presentations were the beginning, and they were a great end of my first month in the US.
I went back home to see the color blue decorating our guests' room, and then I realized that I have a baby brother named after my grandfather: Fahad. I was really happy indeed, I wanted to see this little and new member of the family, and most importantly, I wanted to see my mom. As my father had told me when I got older: after the birth of my brother he left the hospital to go buy some chocolates, and after about two hours he heard on his car's radio that there has been a recent attack to two towers in New York City, and right after that he received a phone call from one of his friends to tell him about all the details.
An attack, thousands have died, and a shocked father on the phone who didn't know whether he was happy upon the birth of his son, or sad about the fact that many innocent lives died in vein.
Thirteen years later, on the exact same day. I am in the country where that attack happened and not in KG anymore. While my brother is at our house in Saudi, with no more blue decorations to celebrate his birthday, only a very delicious chocolate cake. I didn't know what to expect on this day since I'm Saudi, yet that attack doesn't define us in any way possible, neither does is define our religion. We are different, one bad person will never represent a nation.
My host-mother had an idea for me to break some wrong images about my country. So, since she's a principle of a school, I went with her there, and gave presentations. The best way to solve any misunderstanding is to talk, and so I did that, I talked and tried my best to have everything come from my heart. This is why I'm here, to influence something and make a difference. But the reputation of my host-mother's school (The AEC) is known for having -with all of my respect- the bad students who may have bad grades, or have done some bad things. Now that's what I heard, but since she's the principle I went there knowing that I'll find many interesting people.
The first thing that I've noticed there is that the students were really respectful, and all of them knew the system of the school, classes, and teachers when they had arrived. Their reputation didn't define them at all, and I was really happy to see them asking, responding, and actually: discussing things with me about my country.
I gave five presentation, and I can mark 9/11/2014 as a great day in my life, because I believe that I helped in changing a wrong image. "You're a normal girl just like us!" One of the girls said. Yes, I'm normal, and I'm just like anyone else. We are all equal, the history is just a past, therefore the present shouldn't be judged based on it. I myself, a sixteen-year-old Saudi and Muslim girl who wears a headscarf shouldn't be judged by that. And I strongly believe that I have achieved my goal yesterday between the students and staff of the AEC who turned out to be great people.
The whole world is sharing sadness on 9/11, and I share the same feelings too, yet they're mixed with a bunch of happy birthday wishes to my brother, and a lot of ''Well done.'' and ''Great job.'' emails from my program's office in Saudi for doing what I came here for: representing the real image of country. The five presentations were the beginning, and they were a great end of my first month in the US.
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