A Look back

March - 2011

The Syrian revolution against Assad's regime started.  Looking back to that time and knowing the nature of the dictatorship Syria was suffering from, i can only say it was a miracle !

 Assad's family and relatives were like Gods in Syria, president pictures were everywhere ( schools, hospitals, shops, in the streets and even in houses ), no one can ever criticise or talk about them.

 I even know someone imprisoned for 8 years just because of laughing at a joke about the president ( you can imagine what happened to the one who told the joke ). Having all of that in mind i still can't believe how people were able to protest in the streets against the regime. But i guess after all, Bob Marley was right when he said :

  "Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life."

I still remember my first demonstration, every little detail: heart beats, fear, heavy breath, sweating, hope and Freedom! I felt like a free man for the first time in my life and it was literally like being reborn again.

Assad's family ruled Syria for the past 40 years

November - 2012

I graduated from Damascus university with a very good GPA and met a girl who would become my wife in a couple of years.

 It was the second year of the revolution, most cities and areas continued with the peaceful demonstrations despite the brutality of the regime ( on average  500 - 600 people were getting killed every month either by police's fire in demonstrations or under torture in regime's prisons ), nevertheless in some parts of the country the revolution started to be an armed one.

The armed forces in those areas were basically some people decided to protect themselves  or soldiers who disobeyed the commanders orders to shoot at people and decided to defend them instead .

Syrian protests by singing and dancing

September - 2013

By that time things in Syria were a complete chaos, the regime used all different types of weapons to regain the control over rebels areas ( barrel bombs , chemical weapons, aircrafts, tanks ... etc).

Besides that islamic extremist groups were rising and crazy people were literally pouring from all around the world to fight either with the regime or with the rebels, it was like a third world war taking place in my Country!

 Whole cities were vanishing because of heavy bombing from the regime, the rebels also started to use Mortars to shell areas held by regime and the true victims were the civilians trapped at both sides.

 As i was living in Damascus i didn't suffer as much as other Syrians in cities like Homs  or Aleppo, but nevertheless Damascus witnessed a lot of explosions, mortars, shootings and even Israel hit Damascus suburbs few times, .

After living in such circumstances for a while you stop caring about your own safety, but the real pain is you can't stop caring about the ones you love.

After every explosion you can just pray no one you know got harmed, the seconds elapsing till they pick up their phones are nothing but hell on earth.

Syria - Homs

October - 2014

By this year i had already lost more than 6 friends (killed by Regime snipers, bombed or tortured to death in regime prisons). Hundreds of militias fighting each other in my country, destructed cities, hundreds of thousands killed and millions became refugees.

Economy was ( and still ) falling apart, the currency lost about 400% of its value,  we had electricity only for ( 2 - 4 ) hours a day, apparently there was no way to live a descent life in Syria anymore so i started looking for jobs abroad and after 4 months of tests and really long process i was accepted at ( Mindvalley - Malaysia ).

By the end of October i got married and traveled with my wife for the first time in my life to live and work in a country on the other side of the planet !

Something i'd never forget is my last day in Syria. Saying goodbye to your family knowing that you might never see them again, the last looks at your home town which might become a pile of rocks during this crazy war. And the worst is burying your dream of freedom and dignity for your people and country.

Refugees leaving their destructed houses near Damascus

August - 2015

Moving to Malaysia and working at Mindvalley was a life changing experience, i met people from all around the world and interacted with different cultures and religions for the first time in my life which  opened my eyes and mind to a new world where i never judge a human being by his look or believes. 

After one month in Malaysia my wife got a job in Germany, considering our situation as Syrians she couldn't refuse the chance, so she traveled to Berlin and we hoped i'd follow here in a couple of months . So basically we were separated after only one month of our marriage.

In the second week of August i received the reunion visa from the German embassy and the job offer from Zalando ! Although It took me one year to get a visa to Germany, but it was amazing, challenging and educating experience.

Maylasia - Cameron Highlands

November - 2016

Working in Germany for a company like Zalando is really awesome. I learned a lot and grew a lot both professionally and personally this year.

During this year i've also traveled to ( Slovakia, Poland, Czech republic, Italy, Greece ) and every journey was an eye opening experience for me because as Saint Augustine says :  

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

Slovakia - Tatry

So to wrap it up, In 6 years :

 i  joined a revolution , fall in love, witnessed a war, lost friends, got married, worked abroad, visited 7 countries and met tons of new people and cultures.

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