HOF — Last year I hit rock bottom. Depression had been with me for years—maybe decades—but in November 2024 it finally broke me. I couldn’t work anymore. I couldn’t do anything anymore. Life turned gray and meaningless, and all I wanted was a way out.
Continue reading “When Healing Became Another Battle”
Feature image by Ahmed akacha
HOF — After 14 years of war in Syria, here’s the hardest lesson I’ve learned:
The real war isn’t between you and your enemy. It’s inside you—between the part that wants to fight and the part that wants to compromise. Victory only comes when the will to compromise leads even the will to fight. Because only then can you reach the same part in your opponent.
Feature image by Yuting Gao
HOF — I’ve reached an age where I see aging as climbing a mountain. The higher we climb, the less we have — fewer resources, narrower footing, thinner air. The climb strips us of everything nonessential, leaving only what truly matters. And it’s precisely that scarcity that sharpens our appreciation. At the summit, we can look over the vast landscape — and at the few precious things we’ve kept — and feel proud.
That’s what 37 feels like.
Continue reading “The 3 Most Valuable Things in the Universe”
Cover photo courtesy of Sami Raad
Hof — It’s hard to know what kind of loss war leaves behind until it touches the shape of your city. Not just its people, or its streets, or the silence that follows after shelling—but the things that gave it meaning.
Its face.
Its posture.
Its language of stone and steel.
HOF —
People look at me and assume I’ve lived a privileged life.
And in some ways — they’re not wrong.
My father comes from one of the most famous families in Damascus.
My mother, from one of the most powerful in Ghouta.
I have relatives scattered across the globe.
Wherever I land, there’s always someone who can help pull a string.
Roumani Line 