To Live
A friend just came back from a vacation in Spain, a few months earlier, he was in Krakow… I met up with him, and a friend of his, she had recently returned from Edinburgh where she worked for a couple of months. She’s going to university till June, then working in Dublin for 2-3 months… After that, it’s off to a vineyard in France to work with dozens of other young people during the harvesting season… She’s then taking a year off of university, trekking across asia, doing a couple of months’ internship in Australia, then spending 5 weeks in Venezuela, two weeks backpacking across south and central America, 2 weeks in the US and then back to Berlin. They’re both, naturally, supporting their lifestyles themselves. They work, and do things the cheapest way… they make ends meet. They’ll probably finish university in a couple of years, by the time they’re 28-29.
Three years younger, I worry about careers, financial stability, and my future, and am still looking to take the chance. I have seen fewer places, experienced fewer cultures, and had way less fun along the way.
Something is wrong. I’m beginning to believe that my way was not the right way. Is it the culture? The mentality? The difference in responsibilities that we have?
It’s seeming more and more nonsensical to graduate and start work at 23. To join the rat race, to breath in 5 weeks of free air a year till I retire, and to sweat like a pig for the man.
Speaking of pigs. I went out with some friends yesterday. On the way, one of them decided to grab a bite at a ‘Lebanese’ restaurant. We walk in, and naturally, some persian or khaliji music is playing in the background… Pictures and drawings adorn the place… I point out the pictures that are of Lebanon (cedars, baalbeck, sidon, beriut, etc…) saying “this is Lebanon”, and then the drawings of camels and palm trees and deserts and what not, saying “this is not”… Some guy, sitting in a corner, starts mumbling things to his friend, and he calls me a zionist, and a pig. I ignore it. Again. Again. I was really considering doing something stupid, but thankfully my friends were there. Not that they held me back, or anything, just having them their made me rethink things, I didn’t want to be another one of those trash foreigners that fight other foreigners… I was better than that. So, I ignore him and move on.
Later that night, tens of people adoringly looking up to a great DJ, girls salivating as they gyrated to the music…
The point? Too many points… it’s more like a line. The end effect is…
September 17th, 2005 at 12:00 am
It’s in great part due to the mentality, although the economic crisis that Lebanon is going through plays an important role too.
I got that same wake up call as you a few months back when I was discussing my job with a Belgian woman who works at the EU Delegation. Whereas I was complaining about the miserable conditions we get to work in (salary, benefits, and the like) and how much I’d like to change jobs into something better, how ambitious I am, and blabla… she just gave me a surprised look and said: “Come on, you’re so young! Too young to worry about that! A few years ago when I was your age, I was penniless, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was work anywhere, gain experience, travel around… But I guess the economic situation and conditions in your country is different…”
So…she got me thinking. Haven’t done anything about it yet though :S
September 17th, 2005 at 9:22 am
I don’t get it, why would he be labeling you as a zionist?
September 17th, 2005 at 10:21 am
Is he related to *raf?
September 17th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Janjoon… it’s a package deal you get when you’re Lebanese and proud of your Lebanese identity… zionist, pro-colonisation, heathen, (pig, apparently) and the queen of them all: right-wing fundamentalist christian zionist.
(Oh, the times that I’ve been called that… online and in real life…)
September 17th, 2005 at 11:24 am
i’ve asked myself the same things and it’s good to know i’m not the only one i think like delirious said it’s aboot economic crisis in lebanon coz we don’t have any social securities like those guys. if you’re unemplyed there you still get health care and bla bla where as here we have to pay big money for the thing others take for granted. another thing is getting the visas for travelling around on a lebanese passport that can be tough~
September 18th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Hmmm… a little David Lynch there Tempest?
September 19th, 2005 at 8:24 am
dude, you mean you’re not a zionist. i mean, that’s why i love you so much.
September 19th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
5 weeks of fresh air and he complains…
And you were pondering if you would like to move to the states? Methinx you would protest the 6 day work week and 1 week vacation a year.
^. .^
September 21st, 2005 at 12:02 pm
lol heathen I love that one…”right-wing fundamentalist Christian zionist” lol so funny.
If being proud of being Lebanese will label me as a right wing fundamentalist Christian zionist then fuck it, I’m guilty as charged. Lebanon rocks! always and forever!