In the summer of 2019, at John Lennon’s memorial in Central Park/ NYC, his famous song “Imagine” touched my heart to the core. It brought up all my childhood memories. My wish to live in a world where I do not have to explain why I am different, why I do not have any citizenship, or why I was born a refugee. There is nothing I could do to change this fact. My father carved his path to get us to where we are right now. He worked hard to make sure that we receive the best education and provided us with the best opportunities. Consequently, we immigrated to Canada to overcome the obstacle of being stateless.
Did that heal the deep wound? Listening to the news to this day about my occupied country, about senseless killing and torture, about falsely accused women and children that are detained with no avail still breaks my heart. Thinking more about this made me realize that it is not only a problem of my Palestinian people. There are lots of nations that are suffering. On a broader horizon, if we invest more time learning, and less time fighting, the world would be a better place. We can spread love instead of hate if only we stop judging people by look, religion, origin, or ability.
I have always pondered what I want to do with my life before it ends; I realize that life is short even if I am still young and that I should set out to pursue my goals no matter as soon as possible.
What I never dreamed of was that I would have the opportunity to take a huge step forward in a journey that I have pursued for a long time.
When I was young, I inherited the refugee status of my grandparents, who had fled their homeland. I was born as a Palestinian refugee with no land, no citizenship, and no rights. My father, like many Palestinian refugees, believed that education was the way out of misery. He became an engineer with an MA in Education and worked as an electrical engineering educational expert for the United Nations. As a result, I lived in many countries growing up; it was easy to travel using my Dad’s UN passport and it was hell travelling alone using my Palestinian travel documents. It is this that has led me to realize how hard it is to live without citizenship. I then started building a dream of my own; how could I make the world better for all children, Palestinian and others alike? Why was I respected when I was with my father, and humiliated alone? I was the same person with two different passports. How did those without a UN Passport survive? Why don’t we all live together in peace and have equal rights? Many, living under exceptional duress themselves, find that the easiest solution is to blame others. Some find spiritual relief in religion or politics, but end up considering theirs the only true virtue; in the end, they start hating the “other.” My father finally decided that his family needed citizenship, even if it meant leaving his work building vocational learning centers for refugees with the UN. This is how my family members and I became Canadian citizens.
Even living in the safety of Canada today, my eyes and heart still bleed every time I hear about a hate crime. Children by instinct accept each other without any prejudice until they grow up and learn how to un-love. Uneducated and rigid ideologies triggered many wars in the Middle East and in other parts of the world. I am determined to leave a better world for the future generation. I didn’t know how, at first, but then I started to create a path for myself when I registered in the Instructional Design program at Concordia University and pursued a master’s degree. My initial goal was to create learning materials that could help change shape people’s ideologies towards inclusiveness and tolerance. I wanted the new generation to be more educated, and thus more open-hearted. I have learned a lot on my journey in educational technology at Concordia. I chose projects that were awareness-related to improve my knowledge and widen my perspective. I had the opportunity to work on many projects that aimed at spreasing awareness about benevolent behavior, sexual violence, LGBTQ rights, commucation, self-regulated learning, among others.
I have always sought endeavours that would help me achieve my goals, but with every step I take, I ask one question; “Dad, did I make you proud?”
Right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I quit my job at the university, and decided to finally dedicate all my time starting my own training business. My goal was to give back to the world, to spread awareness, to help more people find jobs and to make an impact for the world to become a better place, one person, and one corporation at a time. I never believed that I could be the one to change the world, but I believe that with hard work, I can change someone’s life for the better. This belief was fuelled and concretized when one of my students sent me an email telling me how one of my trainings is going to change their life. As a woman and a mother of two, I had experienced how hard it is to grow a family while successfully balancing my studies and work. My goal is getting more women to succeed as well. As an immigrant and a member of a diaspora with no home, I have experienced how hard it is for people of minority to succeed. In short, I had lots of goals for my new training center, but the pandemic was a very big obstacle in my path. In that time, all I could think of was the show “Last Man on Earth”. The pandemic was scary! So, I decided to keep my job for one more year. I worked slowly in this year, but I continued building a great team. Together, we designed new material, we talked about plans, all while waiting for the pandemic to end and for us to start the project.
Now, work dynamics have changed. There is no need to rent a workspace anymore, and competition grew bigger and wider. It was even scarier to take the decision again! However, the urge to start my training center is constant It talks to me every minute while I am creating material, while I teach, while I do my daily tasks. Whenever I am on social media , I notice how the pandemic made people more hostile and aggressive, and how its impact was negative. People are now dividing themselves according to their COVID beliefs.
I then took the decision to quit my job, to concentrate on training, and to bring to life Key2Skills. It is a long hard journey, it takes courage, it needs hard work, and I am optimistic.
The road is scary, but I am certain that my team and I will be able to create magic with the learning material that we put together. The risk is big, but the motivation to help others and to pay it forward is huge. I can’t wait to see how this project will unfold.
Human skills can be taught, they can change the world if they are taught well.
