We don’t have to make life even harder for each other
Sometimes the choices we make, makes the person who we become. — Lisette Scholtens
His Story
Before the war started, I studied Engineering. I was planning to work with some fellow engineer friends who believed in me and offered to give me proper training after my graduation. I was gonna join them at work later on. But my fellow engineer friends split up due to the war, because they couldn’t find work.
Aleppo is famous for its music, and I love it a lot. I am more into Western music. I play guitar and I was a member in a metal band. The band joined the Syrian metal society and met there are very inspiring people. Unfortunately, my band split up too, because of the unsafe situation. The band members scattered around the globe, just like the story of all Syrians spread around the world.
I have finished my studies under terrible circumstances. It put me in dangerous situations sometimes, and on top of that, the living standards became so low. I decided to make some money and improve my English language skills by translating and teaching music. English is my passion, so I really enjoy it and enjoy reading the British poetry. It fascinates me. I gave music lessons too, and my students were picked to be creative and persistent, since music requires a lot of passion and time. I consider music as a language and to teach someone to talk is really divine to me.
After my graduation I moved to Turkey and I found a job pretty quickly because of my advanced English and computer skills. I have a good job, and I had several promotions. With the help of a few kind people I managed to live completely independent from anyone now. I think that -just like any place in the whole world- in Turkey there are good and bad people. The Turks that I met didn’t make it harder for me as a Syrian though. They know we had to leave our country because there is a war and they are good for us.
I think now that I am here in Turkey, I am much more mature. I need to rely on myself a lot, because I’m not at home. Gaziantep is a little conservative, but I can find some positive things here. There are so many Syrians here, it makes me feel kind of at home, a bit. However, I need to take care and watch out for myself so that I don’t get in trouble. I think that everyone who we meet in our lives shapes us a little bit. This makes our personality an ever changing and developing thing. It was very hard in the beginning, in 2011, when the war started. Almost all my friends had gone, spread around the world. When I came to Turkey myself, I had to meet new people, find new friend. That is not easy, but eventually I made a few friends that I can really rely on.
For the people that I really care about and that are not around anymore, I just hope one day we can see each other again. To feel that there is someone for you. That you are not alone against the rest of the world.
