November of 2012--Nathalie

It was november of 2012, its been 5 months since Mohamed Morsi got elected as the president of Egypt, and half of the population is in a frenzy, well the christian half. Islam has terrorized Christianity in Egypt for a long time, when (Arabs) invaded they enforced high taxes and if you couldn't pay them then (Christians) would either convert to islam or get killed. Christians in Egypt today were really rich because the majority of the public is Muslim. When i introduce myself to people i meet, they always hit me with ‘El salemo alykom” which means Good day to all, but only said in Muslim culture, its an easy mistake to make but i also feel uncomfortable at the ignorance they convey to me when i tell them that i am Coptic Orthodox.
A little background of my life, I lived in Egypt for 11 years and the last 6 months of those 11 years, my life was in flames, my aunt and uncle moved to canada while my other aunt and uncle came to California, America. At 10 years old, my sister and I were given three choices, America, Canada, or stay in Egypt. Later on, I realized that we didn't have a choice it was just my parents way of introducing the idea to us. We got rejected from Canada as we didn't meet their criteria for immigration and staying in Egypt after Morsi was elected as president wasn't an option. Most people do not know or comprehend why it is such a bad thing for him to be elected. He is part of a radical islamic brotherhood that has terrorized Egypt since the 10th century and still does today. They (Islamic Brotherhood) are also related to the same group that transpired the events of 9/11. And Morsi coming into power was the beginning of a new level of bad.
Being Coptic Orthodox and a part of history that was prone to getting repeated we had to flea and seek refuge in the small city of Chino, California. At the age of 10 we don't realize what it meant to be different until the first day of school, when we showed up and everyone was in their pajamas, because they were having a PJs day. My sister and I had to learn English while also maintain fluency in Arabic and French. it was hard especially when we were getting judged by our race. When it was discrimination of religion back in Egypt, it was of race in Newman Elementary School.
Making friends was a hard task, but i feel safe to say that coming to America at a young age allowed me to be able to learn how to make friends easily through trial and error. Having to go through all these hardships I was allowed to experience new and exciting things that were able to balance out the bad. Through these experiences I was allowed to become my potential and present self that wouldn't have blossomed if I was still in Egypt. Every year I learn something new about myself, it's always interesting to see how different I am from what I was the year before. I am also exploring parts of my memories I didn't not think was possible or accessible. In junior year, I found out that I wasn't comfortable with gunshots, cacophonous noises or orange tinted lights. America has allowed me to think for myself and enabled me to answer questions based on my experiences and knowledge rather than from a textbook page. Self exploration was the result of my move to America at a young age, I cannot imagine how hard it was for older people to come after they were brought up in a different culture and have to accomodate to a new one and throw the majority of their beliefs out the window to be considered in the normal age group.
Every year I try t expose myself to unknown things that would further my knowledge and experiences so that i can help others go through the same struggles smoother and have a better life than what was offered in 2012. The good news about Egypt is that Morsi got

impeached in 2013, and now we have a military leader whose improving the quality of life for the working middle class.
One day i aspire to be an influential leader that is able to go back and help her home country improve and get educated on topics like equal rights and women rights, a healthy government and make the country a better place and make an impact on the next generations and bring back the intellect that Egypt had as the smartest and most intelligent and educated people in the whole world. A teacher once told me, ‘be educated so you can offer the best for your country, because if you don't then that means you're willing to let idiots run the country’ I am done letting idiots lead my country, it's time for me to take the lead.