Skip to main content

A Story That Is Not Mine

A Moment for Reflection
There was a tense moment and it seemed awkward not to greet as they passed.
| Salma Abdel Fattah | Issue 152 (Mar - Apr 2023)

This article has been viewed 8090 times

A Story That Is Not Mine

In This Article

  • Either turn the chapter or stay trapped in the past. It’s your life and it’s your choice!
  • This story does not belong to me, it belongs to us as human beings. It belongs to the fact that we dream, we wish, we fall and we get-up, we get hurt and we get cured, we criticize and we flatter, we think and we act, we feel weak and we become strong.

Every day of our lives is a spot on our map. It can be a success, a failure, a turnaround, or maybe even simpler it could be traced by a smile, a frown, a sign or a memory.

A day can be a witness of our splendor and glory; a day can also be forgotten amidst the pages of our diary or deliberately disregarded from our accounts.

I wonder who woke up in the morning missing the motivation to get-up, lacked a cause to fight for, didn’t have a child to take care of, a smile to help you move-on, or someone to say “I am here for you.”

I wonder who didn’t wait for a chance, looked for a sign, stared at the sky envisioning a dream, who never had a wish, never welcomed someone to their life, who didn’t keep hoping for a dream to come true. Who?!

This story does not belong to me, it belongs to us as human beings. It belongs to the fact that we dream, we wish, we fall and we get-up, we get hurt and we get cured, we criticize and we flatter, we think and we act, we feel weak and we become strong.

We mark our lives with events such as the first time we fell in love, our first job, our first raise. We mark our lives with break-ups, engagements, marriages, birth, death, and with the hard lessons we gather on our way.

We sense our directions with great guts that does not prevent us from feeling a single piece of regret. We laugh at jokes, we cry at love scenes, we enjoy the gossip but never forgive being subjected to it.

We are who we are for some reasons, for some genes, for family matters, for experiences we went through, for challenges we faced, for social hazards, for whatever causes and whoever we have met. To those who have never been subjected to monumental changes or personal transformations, isn’t it time for you to stand on the crossroad where choice is calling? Either turn the chapter or stay trapped in the past. It’s your life and it’s your choice!


More Coverage

Bennet Omalu[1] is a physician specialized as a forensic expert and pathologist, which means he examines the tissues and organs of dead people to determine their cause of death. One day, he was asked to prepare an autopsy report about the corpse o...
The hater, my son the hater – enraged by his latest drug of choice – stood on his stepstool in the town square and yelled at us. His topic today was the same as yesterday’s; the words didn’t matter. He hated.  I made the same mistake I made so ma...
“Sincerity” in the Islamic Tradition Ikhlas is a Qur’anic concept that is variously translated as “sincerity” or “purity of intention,” and Gülen’s understanding of this term covers both aspects of the Qur’anic concept. In ordinary parlance, “sin...
Every one of our five senses is unique in their own way. The miraculous sense of smell is pointed to in the famous story of Prophet Joseph when his father Prophet Jacob said, “I sense the fragrance of Joseph” from afar, and when he rubbed his shir...