Appreciating What You Have--AA

While enjoying the great summer that I thought I would have, chilling with my friends and family, everything suddenly changed, in just a wink of an eye.

The telephone began to ring; I got up out of my comfy spot on the couch to answer this call, thinking that it would be one of my friends wanting to make a plan for us. Well, unfortunately I was incorrect; it was my mother. She was hyperventilating, and I couldn’t understand why. I also didn’t understand a word she had said…it was all unclear. After a few endless minutes, she arrived hysterically and explained that the Israelis had bombed the Lebanese airport.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t shocked at all. It obviously hadn’t sunk in to my mind yet. I assumed that everything would blow over in only a matter of days. But when those days ended, a picture of war dug into my head, thinking how different everything would be. I tried to deny it, but deep inside I knew that it was going to be bigger than what I had imagined it to be at the start.

I immediately packed my things for a couple of nights in the mountains. I knew that my mother would barge into my room announcing that we would be spending a couple of nights in the mountains, and she did. While sitting in the car, waiting to arrive to Bhamdoun, to my uncle and aunt’s villa, I was amazingly bored. Each minute felt like an entire decade. We finally arrived with a big smile of relief on our faces. It was exciting and fun at first to see everyone, and chat about the things we had missed out on, but soon the fun began to ware out by the second. While spending endless days and nights in the mountains, all I could think about was what would happen in the future. But it was all unclear as if I was looking through a muddy pond and trying to see what’s at the bottom, looking for answers for my endless confused questions. Spending time with my entire family, blank looks all over the room, it definitely wasn’t the perfect vacation for anyone.

There was nothing to do but stare hard at the news on the television screen, trying to erase everything that had happened, with all our power and strength, or at least hoping to hear that something good had happened…but at that moment nothing did. While listening to the news day and night, I realized how every news channel was very biased. For example CNN and BBC News only showed one side of the war, and that was Israel’s side. They would show the amount of people that were killed in Israel, but not in Lebanon. It made everyone I know pull out their hair; it was absolutely, exaggeratedly ridiculous.

Spending nights with the bombs disturbing our dreams wasn’t the perfect “get away” from the war. This snake followed us wherever we went. Whenever something good happened, this sneaky snake would eat it up again in just a bite. In the end, lots of people were fed up from what Hezbollah had done. Lebanon was being tortured and beaten until it was in pieces, after all its growth over the years, and especially after it had been through 17 years of continuous, dreadful war.

Ten days passed and my parents decided to go to Syria in case this war would take longer than expected. My uncle and his family decided to stay in Lebanon, but the rest didn’t want to take the risk and escaped their worst nightmare. The car ride took around four hours, but it went faster than I expected, probably because I was asleep for most of the time. Never did I expect to stay in Syria for three weeks, but we did. I felt extremely homesick while I was there, I couldn’t bear breathing the Syrian air. I desperately wanted to breathe the Lebanese air, walk on the Lebanese ground, and be surrounded by the Lebanese “Jaaw”, in other words the environment. I spent four weeks worried about my country, hesitating to turn on the television, in case there was some bad news, as always. And whenever I did, I would get goosebumps all over my body, looking at people’s blood and belongings scattered on the ground. People’s home collapsed, like an ocean’s horizon.

I soon imagined my house, my home, my life, collapsed. Suddenly, I’d find my eyes overflowing with tears, my heart bouncing in all directions not knowing where to stay still, and my legs shaking like they’ve never did before, hearing the news made me tremble just by the thought of what they might say. I shut my eyes and imagined continuing my previous way of life, having fun, being safe and secure. Soon that day came and breathing the Lebanese air made me cry tears of joy.

After the war had ended, I realized how outstanding my country is, and how much I love it, and most of all, I realized that Lebanon is the perfect country for me to live in, and I wouldn’t enjoy my stay in any other country but Lebanon. I finally appreciated Lebanon. I learned an important lesson from this war, and it is that you should appreciate what you have, before it disappears in just a wink of an eye.