Your Future

Grade twelve is just around the corner, and before we know it we'll be collecting our Diploma and it'll all be over. All of a sudden your friends are gone, peppered over the planet like sprinkles and all you'll have left is memories and their snapchat screenshots. We all tend to picture ourselves with them, forever. Unfortunately no matter how close we are, the differences within us define us and determine our paths which leads to the ultimate separation. This, however, is not the end of it. Your passion or dream of the future, whatever it may be, plants the seed of ambition and independence. You will find yourself, as time passes, less and less indulging in the privilege of having thirty "close best friends forever , surpassing infinity , till the world ends etc). Thats a load of ______ and we all know it deep down there. People don't have the capacity and empathy to genuinely care and stay interested with that many people at our age. At the moment we're ever changing, ever evolving mass of undetermined mystery. Essentially this means that people end up realising they've no interest in you anymore, instead they find themselves spending more and more time with the person they backstabbed daily with you a couple months ago. Of course it stings but have you ever considered the possibility of someone out there having been your victim of neglect and unexplained desertion?

Realising that your life, your capabilities are not in need of anyones unprofessional opinion truly frees the mind. Technically, no one can actually tell you the way you ought to live your life , what to spend your money on, how to dress. Often we take those opinions to fill the empty gaps of individuality within ourselves and thats where it gets tricky. In order to free yourself of the ever draining and consuming need to find approval from someone else to feel "content" with yourself , you need to find yourself. Discover your personal original preferences and opinions on everything, devoid of any external filters. It doesn't matter if your mentality is genuinely parallel with that of someone who may or may not influence you. It matters that you feel at ease while determining who you are as a person. Flaws are not to be eliminated, they're there to stay. This process is essential to the development of ourselves and if you don't invest into this, you may find yourself in a place you despise, working a job you are utterly bored with and associating yourself with people who always seem above you, no matter what you accomplish.
And perhaps that is the truth of it.

Use this year to not only eliminate people who do not have your best interest at heart , but also to let go of a lot of things that are still clinging on to you. You want to close off and exit this chapter of your life with peace at heart, ready for new kinds of heartache.  That massive fight you had with your best friend , left unresolved, the grudge you've been holding against someone who bullied you, the bitter feelings towards your parents for not making high school the best four years of your life. Evaluate the situation and attempt to approach the conflicts you've had and offer your peace and forgiveness. Even if you think you're beyond that, you never know how the other person is off. Humble yourself by giving in to whatever still bothers you and know that whatever reaction you receive, you were the mature one and tried your best. This also isn't a bad time to apologise to some people and thank some others for whatever you're grateful for.

All in all , this is your last year, your last opportunity to make some major decisions that will carve your path into the future. You won't be "feeling it" every day but you'll have to study, work, research and memorise anyway. Learn to force yourself through all the little pesky obstacles in order to achieve the bigger picture. A completed puzzle wont be one if you start to leave out pieces here and there which you couldn't find. Hopefully this has somewhat caused you to re-evaluate your life for your own good and maybe make some changes.

Were yet to be discovered for our ability to turn crap into gold so do not lose hope. 

summer post #1

This summer is the calm before the storm, aka my last year of school and the IB diploma. (yay)

While all my friends who visit regular schools are out and about traveling the world or watching the entire series of Game of thrones in three days,  I'm stuck behind my desk hoping for my school work to magically appear done to perfection, neatly placed on my desk. And since that's not happening,  I'm left with the constant self battle of procrastination and ambition. Also , as an IB student, there's no such thing as procrastination and getting away with it in the long term, alas I actually ended up studying ; "wasting" my precious summer time. 

Then again I did spend three short weeks in London which was a drop on the hot stone, literally. I'd never been there before so I was pretty exited to get off that plane asap as I had simply refused to visit that nasty bathroom for seven hours straight and 3 ginger ales later with the loud flush and people trying to break that glorified curtain out of the frame,  perfectly aware of the presence of someone else. I mostly end up not eating anything on planes because their food tastes worse than Ikea's food ; rather I detect hints of plastic and jelly .  Needless to say I wanted to rip someone's head off as I emerged into the atmosphere outside the airport and felt the all too familiar feeling of heat creeping up on me, my hoodie and wool fed sweatpants sticking on me (I kinda prepared for rain and wind???).  I frantically started walking around looking for the hidden cameras and heaters but apparently there weren't any. 

London was absolutely beautiful and I was surprised to see that the majority of the people were either from the UAE , India and Korea. No londoner's in sight. (they're all here).

Naturally , for any person that's Arab or has arabs in their family , Hyde park became my second home and basically resembled the people you'd find in Abu Dhabi, just without the malls. And people pretty much did the same thing, which was to find a place to sit and rest from a big meal they just had or the 3 meters they had to walk to get there, placing their Harrods bags on the dirty grass and having shisha in the middle of a forrest in London. Iconic. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the cultural diversity , observing people from literally every religion and country I could think of. An entire street was dedicated to muslims/arabs with arab restaurants and shops which was very pleasant to encounter . I feasted my eyes on all these different people who wore extravagant clothes and treated Oxford Street like a fashion show ; I was one of the critics in the rows with my thick black sunglasses, making it fairly easy to scan people for long periods of time. Trust me, once you get there , you realise how deprived your eyes and mind are. 

I became appreciative of the luxuries that we experience in the UAE and that are not available in Europe. If you don't want to get stabbed and actually have some running water you better keep 50 cents in your pockets because public bathrooms will cost you. 

I can't remember having eaten anything English , but their Italian food was hands down phenomenal. 

The one thing , however, which I enjoyed the most was Camden Street. Think of a place that has every single thing you could ever think of , that you can't just get anywhere else. That A8 canvas of a pug claiming the pug life chose him that you've dreamed of forever, or shirts that have "winter is coming" printed on them, I mean come on. I wish I could've visited that street more and I recommend anyone to visit it , simply because you'll find everything you've ever needed there. 

Hope everyone's had a great summer!