The Blind Side of Arabs in America The Story of My Life

The Early Years

                                    A Little About Me

            Growing up I always wanted to write a book, but I never knew what to write about. Realizing where I am today, my life is the perfect opportunity to embark on my dreams of pursuing this journey. Currently I attend a prestigious university in New York where I hope to study law and bring change to American society. I always loved writing but due to my family, I was often discouraged from pursuing hobbies.

Chapter 1 – Early Years

            I was born on May 24, 1995 to my mother and father Melissa and Angel Habib. I am the youngest of four children and ever since I can remember I was always the “rebel” of the family. My first memory of being rebellious against my parents was when I went to my first birthday party at the age of five. My neighbor, Mark was having his 6th birthday party and my siblings and I were invited and I had the time of my life when I attended that party. I remember the characters from “ The Rugrats” were at the party and were singing and dancing with all the kids. I loved having fun and being around people especially my siblings. We had a lot of fun at this party and I learned about a bunch of cool new stuff like tattoos and piercings because of the goody bags they gave out at the end of the party. I hid my goody bag because I know my eldest Brother, Jay, would try and steal all the candy from me so when he asked where my goody bag was I told him I didn’t receive one, meanwhile I hid it in my pants (not bad for a 5 year old). As soon as I got home I went inside the bathroom and took out my goody bag. When I opened it, my eyes were astonished by the gifts given. There were temporary tattoos of Spiderman, Batman, Superman, The Joker, and many more characters I have only seen on television. Besides the tattoos there were fake plastic earing where we could clip them onto your ear. Back then ear piercings were very popular especially amongst men and male children for they were seen as cool. I spent nearly an hour trying to read the instructions of how to place these temporary tattoos on my body, as soon as I figured it out I was in love with what I did to my body. I placed all the temporary tattoos on my arms and placed the green plastic piercing on my left ear. Nearly in the bathroom for an hour my mother started to knock on the door asking what I was doing and as soon as I opened the door I said “ Tadahhhh mom” with the biggest smile on my face. As soon as she saw what I have done with my body she quickly became angered and started to scream in Arabic. She grabbed me by the arm and continued to scream in Arabic stating that I was not a kid from the streets and tattoos and piercings are for delinquents. My mother rushed me back inside the bathroom before my father would see what I have done to myself, but it was too late. There was always a look my father would give when he was angry, the look consisted of his dark brown eyes staring at you with the biggest grin on his face and he would often make a fist and bite it to indicate that we were about to get disciplined. That night, my ear was bleeding from how hard he pulled the plastic earing from my ear and my arms were blood red from how hard my mother scrubbed my arms to take off the tattoos. That night I cried myself to sleep realizing that I was not what my family wanted and expected from a child. I realized I was different.