Ayas Experience at Yale 23'

  Do I exist? Does anything around me exist?   These are the question that have been challenging me for most of my life, placing religion and beliefs aside, what defines existence? My father has been challenging my three sisters and I ever since I can remember about all the “rules of life”. This concept is somewhat taboo in Jordan because it has been embedded in our minds that god is the question and the answer.    Whenever I sit and think about this concept, I come up with a new answer to keep myself sane and as an attempt to relax my sub-conscious in the process.  I can recall a plethora of situations in my developing years of my dad and I discussing controversial topics like this, some include “the afterlife”, the relationship of gravity with time and the concept of what is right and what is wrong? It’s in our human nature to question everything around us, curiosity is almost automatic in every person. We human beings search for answers in everything and...

  Ahlein Aya! The first thing I hear when I enter class, my best friend Mona, calling me to  sit beside her, I walk to her and kiss her on the cheek to greet her, as our teacher walks into the classroom to start class. I’ve always loved my peoples traditions , my land, my food and my Arab culture, I admire the deep passion I find in each and every one of us - the pride, the bravery and our optimistic attitude towards life. My people have taught me that I am privileged to wake up in the morning, I’m privileged with the fact I ate breakfast this morning. Life is so precious and it’s so easy for human beings to forget that every day is a day filled with so many possibilities, but my people make sure to remind me of this every day. But it hasn’t always been this way.  My people come from neighboring countries, countries like Syria, Palestine and Iraq. We are all gathered in our second home, Jordan, in order to have security and reside in our own haven. As you may kn...

Breathe in and out, my first thoughts as I step into the jfk airport after 10 hours of agony, I go through passport checks and luggage claim and in a blink of an eye I'm in Yales campus checking into my own dorm, as I'm walking to my dorm I observe my surroundings, what do I see? I see people laughing and talking, I see grass and large trees towering over me, I see the gothic styled buildings and the birds flying from one roof to the other, a truly welcoming and beautiful sight to see. I proceed to find my dorms building and carry my large suitcase four floors, when I finally reached my dorm I collapsed on my bed out of exhaustion, feeling the overwhelming heat and the unbearable humidity and sweating profusely trying to cool down. I cool down, get up and take an ice cold shower to recover from the high levels of heat my body experienced, I get ready and go out to explore my beautiful surroundings known as Yales Campus, as I'm walking down the sidewalk I absorb the uv rays ...