I know I’m in no position to speak about this and I literally know nothing, but this is a thought that gets triggered whenever I’m around a baby. I grew up hearing from everyone that you shouldn’t rush to hold a baby when they ask for it, because it might spoil them. They’d get used […]

Why this two-letter word sounds scarier than any other in possibly all languages of the world, is something I often find difficult to comprehend. Not just saying it (that’s for another time) – but alternatively receiving it in response to that which might’ve already been hard to verbalize. I get it’s not “just a word,” […]

When my doorbell rings for delivery, I’ve to take some time to get in shape before I can get to it. I try to look around for a scarf, or anything that I can appear with from behind the door. And within what I usually feel are only a few seconds, the person on the […]

An error message that I’ve often found too frustrating. What if it’s open? I want it gone anyway. It can simply close itself and move right into the Trash. What’s all this fuss about? The more I thought about it, the more I realized it’s kind of what I had been doing with my own […]

How-can-I-tell-my-existence-does-not-annoy-people-while-they-prefer-to-stay-silent-about-it-the-same-way-they-annoy-me-and-I-never-say-a-word-about-it-ophobia It’s real. Been battling with it almost my whole life. The way out? I’m still struggling, but I realize a really good cure is to be more genuine with my own interactions. When something annoying happens, I need to make some noise about it. So I’d be sure that when I’m the annoying person, […]

There’s not being able to understand someone’s feelings when you have no clue what it’s like to go through what they’ve gone through, and then there’s not being able to stop trying to “turn off” their feelings every time they don’t align with your version of what you think they’ve gone through. The latter hurts […]

I’ve been told, on so many different occasions, to “google” whatever it is that I have trouble with. To google answers for my questions, quick solutions for my everyday problems, basically anything I need help with. There’s nothing one can’t google, I’d always assume. Only that when I get too dependent on the internet, I […]

“أعمل إيه بـ’سوري’ دي؟” “What’s the use of your apology?” I came across this “question” among some comments this morning, in response to someone apologizing for a mistake he’s done a few years back, and it triggered me so bad. Because growing up, this is one of the sentences I’ve often heard whenever I found […]

I keep trying to hide those pieces of myself I know I’ll be judged for so terribly, but then someone comes along and puts those same pieces of them out there so elegantly, that I can’t help but feel the shame fading away in ways that unexpectedly give voice to the darkest of my insecurities. […]

I don’t know who instilled in our minds (or maybe just mine) that we’re only meant to feel one emotion at a time. It’s like emotions have to fit in some sort of a mathematical equation, where the presence of one automatically cancels the other out. I’d often refrain from complaining about things that are […]