The Beginning... First Memory

"Who am I? Where am I? I don't know.. Wait!"

I opened my eyes in front of a tall rectangular mirror. "That's me?" I asked myself. "Wait," I closed my eyes again, trying to remember who I am and what brought me there… again, Nothing.

"Will you remain there for a long time?" said a voice behind me. I recognize that voice, yes! That's my mom! Finally I began to recall some memories "Me?" I said to my mom -"Yes you don't stare to yourself like a dumb!"

"Me, Dumb? No way!" I said to myself "I'm not dumb, I'll never be, not anymore!"

Now I remember, I am Ahmad, and yes I'm Arabian. How old was I then? 5 years.

And at that moment I began my life, although I don't remember what brought me there until now, and all I remember before that is just images and a few situations.

About me: I went to a preschool called 'Al-Emtiaz' which means (Excellence) and after that 'Al Hayat' school where I spent almost most of my life in Saudi Arabia. I'm Egyptian by the way, but I lived there for 12 yrs. Anyway, I stayed at Al Hayat school till 5th grade, then I traveled to Egypt for summer break and then my sister and I decided to stay and go to school there and my parent's needed some persuasion, which my grandmother took care of, and so we stayed. It was kinda hard for me as it was my first time to live away from my parents, in a different society, different education and a completely different environment. So we couldn't remain there and by the mid-term we had prepared ourselves to travel back to Saudi Arabia. We booked the tickets and set off with our aunt,who was also travelling, early in the morning just after mid-term tests. And there, at the port, was the first shock for me, "That boy can't pass through the borders!" said one of the ticket clerks "He doesn't have a passport".

My expression then was like "Wait, what? seriously? If so then what's that?" and I looked immediately to the passport in my aunt's hand, and clearly she read my expression and told the man "So what's that?" and he coldly said "This is his mother's passport, and although he is added to it, he needs his mother to pass WITH her not without her" and so I couldn't pass to Saudi Arabia. My aunt then sent me back to our city with a man we met there and in the way back I was crying so much cuz now I have to stay alone even without my sister.

We sat at a coffee shop and the man told me in a kind tone "Don't cry, I know that's too much for you but you're a man and you need to pull yourself together and you have to depend on yourself and think what would you do." He was right, until now I still remember these words and they were enough for me to continue my life alone without falling apart. The man then left me in the bus to continue my way back to my city and I stayed there for the year.

Through that year, I learnt more than what I've learnt through the past 10 years. I started to learn how to deal with people and coexist in the society, I also learnt English during the year because I had a teacher that gave us 40 words to save each day, although she was horrible and terrifying, she managed to make me good at English and I improved very much with her.

When that year was finished, finally, my parents came from Saudi Arabia to spend the summer break and took me back with them, but they took a different person, I changed a lot during that year and, because of the firm educational process of Egypt and hard curricula, my brain was now able to memorize and store big amounts of information for a long time and I could easily recall them when I needed to, so by the end of the following year (7^th grade) I became the first of Saudi Arabia in my grade, I got full marks in all subjects and they gave me a beautiful and very expensive watch.

The following year we returned to Egypt to stay there permanently except for my dad who returned to work in Saudi Arabia. When we stayed I began to look for computer courses to attend because I loved computers so much since 2^nd grade, and I took my first course in computer maintenance and when I got the certificate I was extremely happy of my first achievement in Egypt and I kept attending courses in computer and language until last year when I got my biggest and most important certificate of them all, English proficiency degree, and then I became officially an English expert and a translator of EGITA.

After that I didn't take any additional courses because I had to focus on my last year of high school as the results of it will determine my future and indicate to which university I can go. The final tests were finished by the first of July and I'm nervously waiting for my results which will be revealed by the 16^th of the same month.

So that's all the basics about me for now, any more details will be posted separately in the near future. Thanks for reading, Ahmad.