[Music]
good evening everyone I would like for
you to close your eyes and imagine this
with me so you’re standing in front of
an ocean it is wide and deep and endless
and you’re on the shore
noticing ships coming by and dropping
their cargo and to you it looks a lot
like garbage
locked up boxes and remains that you
don’t know what for but while you’re
standing there every time you look there
is a key on the shore right now maybe
you’re too far away maybe you don’t have
time to worry about it until one day you
come closer and you pick up that key and
you realize that all this time it’s been
an invitation to go diving in your ocean
you can open your eyes now and back to a
real world where this ocean you’re
standing in front of is your life and
all these boxes are all the
circumstances and hardships that are
thrown at you it could be war or loss
maybe you lost your job or something you
worked really hard for it could be
illness depression addiction anything
and this ski laying there it is
curiosity it is vulnerability it is
there every single day waiting for you
to pick it up and to go diving in your
ocean well I am 17 and I have so many
ugly boxes in my ocean one box I have is
the war in Syria it is such a heavy and
painful box I hated it I wanted to stay
as far away from it as possible this war
that has injured and starved and killed
so many I didn’t want anything to do
with it so I pretended like it just
didn’t exist but then came another box
and that is my new life here in the US
this one didn’t look any better either I
came here three years ago not knowing
any English and you can imagine all the
struggles that I went through it was
impossible I really thought that I
wasn’t gonna make it we studied the
Odyssey freshman here and I was the most
depressed you can you can imagine how
hard it is for native speakers so for
someone like me while somebody well the
average student
learning few new words the day I was
learning hundreds it was insane
and I became really desperate and lonely
and my teachers my family they noticed
they would encourage me every day to
look at it differently to pick up that
key and to go diving in my ocean and
that’s when I thought you know what
I am impoverished I don’t have anything
I’m standing on this Shore without a
language or friends or a country or a
house and so I went diving in my ocean
and it wasn’t easy it was hard it took
me a while every day I would go a little
deeper until I got there and saw my two
boxes the war and my new life and I
thought you know I am NOT in Syria
anymore I am far away from the war but
my new life is starting right now maybe
I should open that box first and so I
did and I opened that box and you know
what I found with all the struggles I
found some treasure my talk tonight is
titled head and treasure because I found
good things among all the hardships all
the obstacles I found patience and
perseverance and motivation and
inspiration and strength and I found all
everything I needed to solve these
problems so I picked that up and went
back to my short but I started solving
my problems every day I would sacrifice
hours and hours of sleep I would work so
hard because I knew I can do better and
I did in few months I became proficient
in English and I became one of the top
students at my school I went my life was
transformed
I went from practicing how to say the
word poem to winning the Columbus City
thank you this Odyssey that that I
struggled with became my first
inspiration for a poem and in this past
year alone I was published in over 10
books that I was even nominated for a
it is insane to think how far I’ve gone
how this journey has brought me here to
be standing in front of you tonight
and just two months ago I was in New
Orleans for a national competition where
I placed third in the nation I am really
happy that I get to be somebody
encouraging that I that with all the
treasure I found I didn’t just find some
I didn’t just find treasure for myself I
found enough to be shared with the world
I found enough that I am here tonight to
encourage you to inspire you to pick up
your key and to go diving in your own
oceans I am sure you all have boxes and
you all have box of the or ugly and ones
that you’re running away from it happens
but this is a risk worth taking and I
have to admit I have boxes that I am too
scared to touch self my father died two
years ago in the war and this one I’m
still too afraid to come close to I
visit every once in a while but I can’t
say I fully opened it yet and I’m sure
that one day just like I found treasure
in the war in my new life I will find
judder in that box too and so tonight to
inspire you even more I would like to
share with you some of the richness that
is in the box of my war the wharfs fifth
anniversary in Syria we are running out
of coffins we wrap our dead like
Christmas presents we are running out of
places to bury our dead
we keep them upright death knows no
laying down in our land we fall standing
up and when the last doctor in the city
dies the last person to know how to hold
a needle and stitch our bulletin
uteruses dies we hold the needle and
stitch them ourselves
spend five years now and my country is
bleeding a river my father’s head has
already fallen heavy in my hands it’s
been five years now and I’ve grown fifty
years standing on two feet
I am no longer myself I am the name of
the nameless the forgotten the killed
the murdered the injured the present the
raped and still I breathe and I push and
I breathe and I push because someone
somewhere in the world ought to keep
Syria alive it was never her wish to
come this close to dying thank you [Applause]
Be First to Comment