Everyone is living in a different way than each other, but at the same time, everyone is showing others the way they want their life to be viewed as which makes us humans so unaware of how complicated human lives could be. Yara, a little 8-year-old girl who lived in Illinois and didn’t know what was going on at the moment, was packing a bunch suitcases to move to somewhere “new” and “different”, little did she know, It was the other side of the world, Jordan. Not even saying a proper goodbye to her friends, Yara just went into a car with her mom and her two younger sisters and left to the airport. Not knowing that she’ll never see this place again for 8 years.

After a very long flight of eating and sleeping, Yara and her family arrived at a different looking airport. "I was kind of confused about where we were". Then Yara paused for a solid minute while looking at the ground and then looked back at me through the phone's camera and said: "I asked my mom about what’s was going on and where were we, but the only response I got from her was a smile" Then Yara herself smiled at me after saying that. Yara described her mother’s facial expression being “sad but happy at the same time, I really couldn’t tell. It was the first time I’ve seen such an expression on her face”. Yara took her mother’s hand and just rode in a random car that took them to somewhere she would start calling home.

All of us people are living on the same planet around the same parts of the world, therefore, whether it be for work, school, grocery shopping, or even just to have a simple conversation, we all end up interacting with people in different situations. I asked Yara to tell me about a situation that really affected her while she was in Jordan but that question was followed with a somewhat frightened/uncomfortable look from Yara. Yara was sitting on the floor and said, “I didn’t even know the language and I had to go to school there" which made many incidents in school "harder". Yara started off by giving me an example of what she meant by school being "harder". when Yara first started going to school, She was on a bus that had a “bus bully”. Yara said "before I talk about the bus bully, I have to mention what the buses were like in Jordan at my school", “First, it’s unsafe and very crowded and much smaller, they probably could fit, at most, twenty people and usually forty to fifty people would go on it. The layout of the bus was two seats on the left and one seat on the right and the right seats were like very precious seats that everybody wanted to sit on”. Yara was explaining how the buses were with an angry tone of voice. One time she and the bus bully were waiting for a girl to get off at her bus stop so they could take her seat because it was a very precious “one seat “and the bully thought for sure she would get it since no one would ever stand up to her or even face her and not give her what she wanted. "But little did she know", Yara said with a smiling proud expression while raising her head up high, she was up against someone who wasn’t like the rest". Yara made it to the seat first and refused to get up because she got it "fair and square" are the words Yara used to describe why she was in the right. Then, Yara fixed her sitting position, raised her back, and started using her hands to help her express her feeling about what she was about to say. "The bully kept on messing around with me" Yara slowly started raising her voice even though her family was sleeping. " She was hitting earphones out of my ears, push me around, and even went as far as to YELL at me in front of everybody!". Yara realized that she was getting worked up so she kind of relaxed all her body at once and sighed. "But, I refused to get up". with a somewhat sad expression on her face. The bully just eventually gave up. Yara said: “Now everyone was shocked because I was just this girl who was new who just easily like kinda stepped up for myself even though no one really did that”. When Yara and her sister got back home, Yara’s little sister watched all this happen and "was so excited about what her older sister did and was just jumping around and telling the story to mom because she was so happy and proud of her sister". Yara said that with a soft expression and a smile. Yara then held her head up high when she said: “I never let anyone bully me or push me around because, you know, I’m gonna fight for myself. I’m gonna defend myself. I’m not gonna let anyone mess with me”. This story made her love that kind of feeling, the feeling of defending yourself, standing up for yourself, depending on yourself. Yara moved her sitting spot and went from sitting on the floor to a chair and said in a relieved and exciting way: "This incident made me crave that feeling, the feeling of always wanting to stand up for myself no matter what!".

Yara’s school life was pretty hard because she had to adjust to her new lifestyle, plus, Yara also didn’t really get a break when she was at home. When I asked Yara if her life at home was better, Yara stayed silent for a few seconds and said: “not really”. “I was going through something difficult at home that not everyone goes through”. Yara was blessed to be raised with a father and mother that loved her dearly and were always there for her, but when she moved to Jordan, Yara’s dad wasn’t there anymore because he couldn’t find a job in Jordan. “It was really hard, like the first year, not coming home to your dad. It was just hard to not have that father figure in your life”. Yara said that in a way that made it obvious she felt bad for herself. Despite her dad not being there, they actually had a great relationship because Yara talked to him every day which made Yara feel like their connection was still there and as strong as ever. Yara stood up, put her phone on the dresser, and wiped her face as if she was about to change the whole atmosphere and said with a bubbly tone of voice: “Even though we were so far apart, we were still so close”. Yara continued wth her bubbly tone of voice and suddenly squeezed herself and said: “This made me reallllllyyyy appreciate when my dad came to visit us just to see us and also appreciate the visits we made to see him”. It was obvious that Yara’s father was definitely one of her motivations to always do well in school and in her life because “I would want to have a bunch of experiences throughout the day just so I could go home and tell my father all about it!”. Yara would also work hard to make him happy and proud when he hears her achievements. That is one of the reasons Yara always tries so hard on her tests. Therefore, I told her to give me an example of things she does to make her father happy. Yara started laughing so hard and said: “One time, I had an Arabic test and at the same time I was super sick but I had studied so hard and so long for this test. So I ended up taking the test but kept on throwing up. Of course, I wasn’t able to focus on the test!”. “It was sad since I put so much effort into it like you know what I mean?,” Yara was trying her best to get me to relate to how she was feeling. “But Then, the day of the results arrived and the teacher walked in, “Her face was very disappointed, and that kinda scared me”. Then the teacher called on Yara to stand in front of the whole class. That made Yara so nervous, however, “I realized she’s mad at the class and not at me”. The teacher explained how even though Yara was throwing up every five minutes, Yara still got the highest grade on the test in the entire grade. Yara yet again said holding her head up high out of proudness, “That changed the way I see obstacles cause no matter what I go through I could just go right through them!” as she did with the test, her determination to never give up was what made her get the highest score but it was also because she wanted to hear her dad tell her “good job, I’m proud of you”.

This is how Yara lived for eight years in Jordan. I wanted to hear more about her from her sister that actually saw Yara’s growth and situations in Jordan, like the “bus bully” incident, so I wanted to talk to her sister Rena but she was sleeping. I called the next morning, made sure to have the cameras on, and talked to Yara’s little sister, Rena. I asked about what she said about Yara during the “bus bully” incident and how she looked at Yara as her role model. Rena smiled and simply said with a guaranteeing tone of voice: “I really do look up to my older sister, ever since we left to Jordan, even though I was young, I felt like she had my back in school and at home and basically everywhere we went”. Rena said that she would always “feel calm because even if they were in a hard or stressful situation Yara would always take me to her room, play with me for hours, help me with my homework, let’s me sleep on her bed with her, and tells me how everything is fine”. Then Rena suddenly paused and her expression flipped from being happy and smiley to sad and unwanting to speak, “But” a long paused followed,” during the night, when Yara and I and everybody was supposed to be asleep, Yara would wake up and start doing her own homework after midnight and then prepare hers and mines lunch for the next day and I really felt like crying during those times in bed”. Rena caught Yara a couple of times but when Rena would ask her what she’s doing, Yara would say: “Shhh, let’s keep this a secret between you and me” just to make the situation playful for a little kid. “This shows how Yara is selfless and piles up too much inside of her but why does she do that? I really want her to open up to me in hopes of relieving her from some of her burdens”. Rena said that while raising both her eyebrows and asking me in a desperate way as if she wanted me to give her an answer but then realized that she was revealing too much of her true feelings to me so she quickly tried to change the topic. Yara was the eldest among her siblings, therefore, Yara grew up with the most responsibilities. Rena feels like the way she views life is in such a positive way because of her sister and it gives her “hope” in humanity. Rena said: “My sister is amazing, she’s a hard worker, selfless, and just simply amazing, I don’t know how my life would have been without her by my side even though that’s pretty cliche, it’s true.”.