The Ambiguous Odyssey

In her eyes I saw pain, I saw the feeling of helplessness that I have seen too many times before. In her eyes were wails and screams, the image of a broken soul. She stood so tall yet so frail like the slightest breeze of air could shatter her to pieces. Her bloody body standing above her little one with nothing to do but to accept the pain and to dwell in the sorrow.   Wars are never easy and the losses are never predictable, the only thing guaranteed is pain. Over 1800 days have passed and the only thing that has been stable is the pain. The only constant in our lives is pain. These horses were more than just animals to us Yemenis, these Arabian horses resembled both nobility and courage which are the two components Yemenis are made of. In the past fifty years Yemenis were portrayed and conveyed as savage illiterates who have no morals, all of which are false allegations. In the past five years I have got to know my people because nothing brings people closer together than c...

I remember this day vividly, half a decade has passed and it feels like yesterday. It was a Tuesday and I had decided beforehand to skip school that day to study for an exam. I slept early the night before as I always do, then when I woke up, I grabbed my phone, opened WhatsApp and found my class’s group blowing up with messages. I began to read through them and I was not comprehending the words “Saudi declared a war against us” it seemed insane. I went out of my room, I found my mother and sister in front of the TV watching the news and it was in fact real. Everyone in Sana’a was awake, the first bomb thrown left the whole city awake, except me that is, that is also when I discovered what a deep sleeper I was. It did not make any sense to me, why were we attacked? A few days prior on the 21st of March, 2015 there was an explosion in a mosque during the Friday prayer which led to the death of so many. Maybe that was the warning sign, but I never saw it coming. The whole day I laid cud...

I remember my excitement for 2010 I had just turned 11 and the world seemed to be my oyster, I had a whole plan set out for myself. I was a hardheaded child with a plan, a well thought of plan, I was going to graduate high school at 17 and start university directly after, as a law student of course, and Harvard was the obvious choice. Nothing seemed too far, nothing seemed unreachable, every dream I had was valid, every dream was a possibility. It is hard to reminisce the past, how all that energy is long gone, I blame this war for it.  In February of 2015, I was sixteen preparing for my AS-Levels to elevate my chance of getting into a league school, my life revolved around books and studying, I would stay put for six hours straight without budging studying maths day in, day out. I missed out on so much all for an exam I never took because the moment this aggression began all hell broke loose, everything was cancelled and I was left to panic and cry that my life plan wou...