An Unforgettable Experience--AD

I was feeling depressed and couldn’t think for a whole hour. This was the way I was feeling on the first day of the war. It all started when my family and I were having a delicious meal, until we heard a deafening noise that shook our doors. The ground shook all around us and we always stayed in the living room, (which was the safest area).Right away, my dad called his brother, and asked what was going on.

Unluckily no one had a clue of what was happening. So right away my dad switched to the news channel. My father told us that the Lebanese chief of ''Hezbollah'' has just kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. "Pack everything important in a small bag" said my mom. We were going to my uncle's house (in Mar-Elias), which was far from the sea. We lived in front of the sea, so we went because the war ship was bombing "Dahyeh".

Sadly, my aunt and her sister’s daughter were here from Canada for a cool relaxing summer. But a war was definitely not what they expected. My aunt’s sister’s daughter which was my age was regretting the moment where she agreed to come to Lebanon. She was crying so hard every night, thinking about her parents and siblings. All of us couldn’t sleep at night, so we gathered up in one room and made a great decision. My dad was working so hard on helping us evacuate the country with them to Canada.

Almost all the "Dahyeh" was destroyed and many people were dying each day. The first couple of days, I was really terrified to watch the news because I didn’t want to see people dying and homes being destroyed, but then it was normal for me to want to know what was happening to my country. No one was feeling good, and my family was deciding to leave the country for health purposes. After living through the war for one week, we finally decided that leaving Lebanon was safe, but on the other hand bad because we would be leaving our relatives and cousins in Lebanon.

I really felt like this war needed to end because it really was reducing our population. The tourism rate also dropped because the tourists were scared. What happened to the Lebanon that was one of the most popular tourist destinations? All my good feelings towards Lebanon had suddenly vanished. I was so terrified because every time we used to hear stories about the previous war, someone would cut-off the person saying the story and say: “don’t freak them out, they never lived a war”.

I learned many things during the war. I learned not to be selfish and to feel for the poor, because if I am going to be selfish and ask for this and that, I have to also remember that youngsters are becoming orphans every day. People were also becoming homeless and they were losing their jobs. People's homes were damaged, which led to people living in schools and sleeping on floors, and over crowding. Most importantly, dirty water which led to outbreaks of cholera.

After the war ended, I went to view some destroyed sites with my uncle, and he told me as he was pointing at a destroyed building "this is what happens every time you hear a loud noise". This really hurt my feelings, but at the same time, I was proud that my country achieved the victory in this war because no matter how much Lebanon was bombed, it couldn't be destroyed.

As a conclusion, I would like to describe my point of view by saying that this war was an unforgettable experience that showed me a lot about the "Hezbollah" soldiers. I also wish that the conflict between Israel & Lebanon ends, because we really were affected and had to pay millions for every time they bombed.