HOF – When I was 12, my father told me that I was a fly. He warned of the West’s allure like a blazing light bulb. He told me that the distant sparkle would incinerate me if I ever went there. I was a rebel. I never listened. I installed a VPN software to access banned Western social media. That was how I learned English. For the next 15 years, I relentlessly pursued the West.
I came to Austria with a student visa in 2015.
Continue reading “Crossing through Inferno”
HOF – Regrets. There’s nothing worse to endure. The worst regrets emerge from the failure to follow the heart — to go against it.
Continue reading “Broken by Heart”
BAMBERG – Christoph was a terrible driver. I only drove with him once, and he almost crashed us. Not long after that, he did crash the same car, a cube-like Skoda, and then bought himself another Skoda. He was so fond of the Czech automobile brand, which was acquired by the German Volkswagen Group in 1994. I always assumed his car choice was influenced by his roots.
Continue reading “House of Salted Caramel”
Bamberg — Sixteen years ago, I was sixteen — a teenager in Damascus with a white desktop computer, a 56kbps modem, and an obsession with connection.
Every click, every pixel, every message that broke through my country’s firewalls felt like a victory — a small rebellion against isolation.
GRAZ – We often take the most precious things in life for granted. Who truly takes into consideration his eyes while sitting in front of a screen for hours every day? Who worries about his hearing while blowing up his ears with headphones? Who worries about his legs while abusing his knees going up and down a hill carrying heavy loads? Who truly cares about his lungs while inhaling one pack after another?
It’s simple and obvious that we’d dearly miss these things when we lose them. Until we do, however, they must go unappreciated.
Continue reading “Unappreciated”
Roumani Line 