Razan Alaqeel's

The sky of the world has been lighting up today with the colors of the different and crazy fireworks. Resolutions have been set, and many dreams were unleashed towards the next twelve months of this year. Where will we end up?   I believe that the year of 2014 was definitely a great train ride that took me through a lot of good experiences. I not only have learned new things about the world, but I have also discovered many new things within my personality. I grew up, and became more mature in the different aspects of life.  This year I am a passenger of an amazing flight that's been flying me everywhere. I started this year with meeting the manager of the Four Seasons Hotel chain in Saudi Arabia who taught me that the biggest reason of success within a team is to be confident that you're surrounded by the best, to believe in yourself and them, and most importantly: to always lead, and never boss people around thinking that your higher positions makes you better than ...

All I knew about Christmas was Kevin Mcallister, protecting his house in Chicago, or protecting his life in his uncle's in New York. I've always watched the Home Alone movies with the same joy, and I never got bored even though I knew the whole scenario. Yet something about Home Alone and the way that the director captured Kevin's love for Christmas and Christmas trees have always touched something in me.  I had a dream of "living" Christmas, maybe not exactly like Kevin, but I wanted to have my own experience that I can live and enjoy every moment of. I wanted to stop reading the greetings that people tweeted on Twitter, or posted on Facebook. I wanted to be the one who did those things. I wanted to write greeting cards, buy presents, eat candy canes that are not sold or produced in Saudi Arabia, and I wanted to enjoy this festive holiday just the way we enjoy and celebrate Eid.  It amazes me how dreams can come true, because once I believed that some...

Getting up for school seemed to get harder as the break got closer, but the joy the filled the school's hallways today was indescribable.  Everyone had a different outfit.  The students carried gift bags that had surprises inside of them for their friends.  Each class had food to celebrate this great holiday.  Some hallways echoed with the sound of Christmas music, even the books in the Media Center had something different, I guess that their display was changed yesterday, but this seemed like the Christmas spirit taking over everything. I even heard Santa, yes, Santa!  "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!"  And I walked searching for him, and luckily he was taking pictures with some people.  I waited for my turn, and took a picture with him.  I've never celebrated Christmas before, so you can imagine that that was my very first picture with Santa Clause whom I heard about in my mom's bed time stories, and watched its movies that aired in the western c...

It seems like it was yesterday when I hugged my parents goodbye, and saw my sisters trying to hide their tears as I waved at them when they left King Hamad International Airport in Bahrain and headed to the car to drive back to Saudi Arabia. I was there, all by myself. I can still remember every detail of that goodbye. My stomach was growling because I kept myself from eating anything all day long since I was nervous to start this journey. I only had those juicy and soft palm dates with a small cup of that brown Arabic coffee. Its aroma reached my heart before my nose, and its flavor warmed my whole body that shivered out of fear.  كأنه أمس عندما حضنت والديّ، و رأيت أُختاي تحاولان أن تمسحان دموعمهما بينما رفعت كفي الذي كان يرجف لأودعهم بينما خرجوا مطار الملك حمد الدولي بالبحرين و اتجهوا للسيارة ليرجعوا السعودية. كنت هناك، لوحدي، مع حقيبتاي، و أخرى على ظهري التي إحتوت على أهم ممتلكاتي التي كانت جوازي، و طبعاً عصاة صور السيلفي التي بدت مبهرة و جديدة لأغلب الناس في أم...