Narrative

Alaa Khalifa

English 21001

09/14/2022

Who is Alaa?

Who am I? That is a complex question, where do I even start? Well, I can start by saying my name. I’m Alaa, not Allah or Aala. I’m Egyptian and if you’re interested enough, I’m a leo. And just like many other Americans I am an immigrant. My parents migrated from Egypt when I was about two years old, so the only attachment I had to my language or country was through my parents. I would tell you the reason behind my parents’ migration to America, but that would be too long, either way I’m here to talk about myself. Sounds slightly narcissistic, doesn’t it? For now,I’m going to tell you about every important detail that has shaped me into the person that I am today.To start off, my family and I were constantly packing bags, looking for suitable apartments, and moving around. We lived in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, etc. We even moved from America to Egypt at some point, so we left people behind more often, even though it’s still hard when we do. As I stated in the introduction, my only connection to my culture and language were through my parents so of course I knew very little about Egyptian culture and the Arabic language. My parents were the type of parents that wanted their children to be close to the place they came from, to the society they were born into. To have that connection with their mother country and mother language. So doing what would be a typical Arab parent thing to do, they sent us to Egypt to study Arabic and Islam. So, at seven years old, we packed our bags and decided let’s take a long-lasting trip to the country with the pyramids, and high mountains of sand. Of course, being the whitewashed Egyptian kid with freckles I didn’t know much Arabic only knowing half of the alphabet. Getting off the plane I noticed something, not water droplets running down my palms, just the 101 degrees and the dry air. Outside the airport all I saw was sand, dirt swept across the ground, and a hot scorching sun in the sky. As I ride the car to the countryside, I see the mixture of

the rural and urban parts of Egypt, not as modern as America, the colors on the building fading away because of the hot dirt filled air, with stray cats and dogs wandering the streets aimlessly. First day of fourth grade came very quickly, to say I was excited Is an understatement, this quote really helped me get through the excessive studying and the need to succeed. There I was living day by day for four years in my home country. I felt indifferent to everyone, everyone around me was Muslim, were hijabis and understood everything that I am going through and we went through it together. All that in four years, I was feeling like I was finally home, like this is going to be forever, that I’m not going away no more, but of course my parents have many surprises. 2016 finally came and so was the time to come back to America. It’s like I had to learn everything all over again. Of course, I knew English but it’s not the same. Nothing was the same after that, now we are just a family of six in a foreign country, we are here while all our loved ones get married and maybe even die and we are never there to be part of it. Getting off that plane I felt my hands soak up with sweat, I thought I was not going to experience sweaty palms again, but we return to the high humidity. Now that you have an overview of my background, I’m now going to tell you about myself. I am an energetic person, that always has something to say. I’m the type of person to tell a jokeuniform on the handle of the wardrobe whilst preparing the school equipment with my siblings. I later experienced a huge cultural shock of what I saw in that school. Nothing was the same as America, four kids sitting in one desk, school uniforms that were just not it, standing up when talking to teachers and even using only four fingers when raising your hand. Either way, I learnt, I can read in Arabic, I can write in Arabic, I memorized half of the Quran, and I got close to my family and country. I can’t even state an Arabic quote that is very important to me ” ,”which translates to “whoever asked for success, stayed up through the night”. This and laugh at it. Let me tell you one right “two high people were having a conversation, one tells theother, being that America went to the moon we will go to the sun. The other person replied by saying, aren’t you afraid of getting burnt. The first person replies, we will go at night you idiot” ha-ha. When someone first talks to me, I try to sound intelligent, but when you get to know me, I become more like myself. Unless you get headaches easily don’t sit with me. My friends and family see me as outgoing and overly social; I can just sit there and joke around and take jokes from other people, but let me tell you when I go home, I overthink everything. Yes, I’m an overthinker. Overthinking has taken over my life for a while now, constantly worrying if that person seemed annoyed when I talked to them? Or did I say something wrong? Did I take my jokes spent 700 dollars from my personal money to take lessons and to take the exam, just the like the guitar, I used to dream of driving. My palms on the steering wheel while I instruct the vehicle to go where I wanted it to. I might be academically lazy and just a slow person in general, but when I put my mind to something, I won’t stop until I have done it.I’m the type of person who gets attached easily. Leaving people continuously made it worse, making me have separation anxiety often. Like if I spend three days with a person and they must leave forever, I will shed some tears. Like when I has worked with SYEP, I worked two hours away and transportation took most of my paycheck, I hated the job because of the transportation. too far? Are people not going to want to associate with me anymore? My overthinking then led to my constant anxiety; always afraid I would blurt out something that I am not supposed to say. Even though I am an overthinker, I still trust people easily. I will put a person’s feelings over mine constantly, and I do care about what people think. I am a person that likes to be alone in the dark with just a book and some music, but I hate feeling lonely. I hate feeling that I’m alone and that nobody cares about me enough to ask about me. It feels like I’m being swallowed whole by the darkness that its very suffocating, like I’m sitting around a bunch of people and none of them can hear me talk, even if I scream my lungs put. It feels like I’m invisible to the eye. I am just like whatmy parents say, sensitive.. Not to be narcissistic or anything but I’m the most talented one in my family. Playing the guitar was just a dream of mine but look where I am right now. I used to go to sleep and dream of playinga guitar, I would feel its metallic strings on the tips of my fingers while I see the vibrating on the strings while I continuously strum the strings, then I would wake up and realize it was all a dream. Well, it was a dream until I saw my father coming in with a guitar, he bought for me as a gift. That day I didn’t leave the instrument, just strumming aimlessly at it knowing that I can’t play but I was still satisfied with the sounds of the strings. Until I finally had the opportunity to learn in my high school, now come look at my collection of guitars. Speaking of dreams, if I want something so bad, I will have it. Like getting my driver’s license, did it from my first try not to brag. Even if I

But when it was time to leave, I didn’t want to. I shed tear after tear hugging my manager and all the kids I got attached to. I kept thinking of them day and night. Maybe next time you talk to me, get ready with some Advil. Before I end this, I want to ask a question. Would I interest you with a bad joke? “What did the halal cucumber say to the halal lettuce? Lettuce make salat.” Haha.