Where Does Your Passion Lie?

Forget interests, hobbies and other words with small meanings. I want to discuss Passion.

Already in my second year of university, and I remain baffled as to where my passion lies. How many of you out there feel the same way? Or am I alone in a tunnel with this light at the end, which I know is there, but reaching it has proved almost impossible?! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m unhappy or unsatisfied with my life, it is just that I haven’t found the one thing that captures my full attention and makes me want to work more and more to get better and better at it! I haven’t found the one thing that reminds me what my purpose is, where my place in society is.

If I could just find it, the secret of where MY passion lies, I will easily create a plan for my future, easily know what it is i WANT to study at university and where it is my dreams are headed

I am very aware that many people out there have found out what their passion is, or have known it since their younger years. Would you very advantaged people point out to me how you came across this knowledge? How do you know what it is what you adore? There must be a step that I am skipping in the whole process. I have met people who know that they want to be a “vet” or a “baker” or a “construction engineer”… I don’t know, have you grown up always dreaming of being a construction engineer? Did you know of construction engineering when you were younger? Or has all your passion been fueled recently and before that you were as baffled and confused as I am now?

Certainly there MUST be at least someone out there with the same concerns as mine! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I don’t have plans for the future, it’s just that im not convinced with my plans. I’m not convinced that these plans are my way to personal happiness. I ‘plan’ to study to become a Business Lawyer, which is a lawyer specific to businesses and firms. I ‘plan’ to further my education with some sort of PhD in Law or a similar field. This so-called ’plan’ I have devised is a smart net I have created for myself, which if all else should fail I will have these very respected degrees to fall back on. But.. the prospect of it all seems like a task to me, rather than a journey I would love to take.. Honestly, is there even that perfect journey? Is there a pinnacle of all pinnacles where a person is going through life by working within the fields of their passion? Or is this all a collective dream of all people, which nearly nobody has fulfilled? Is it too fantastic a dream to want a passion to follow?

I must apologize for the increased use of questions in this post, but I have so many unanswered questions myself. I would love to know what you guys have to say about the subject, your point-of-views and any advice would be more  than welcomed.

Enjoy your weekend,

xoxo Hana

Tags: advice, answer, baker, business, business law, college, confused, construction, dream, dreams, engineer, interest, law, passion, question, studies, study, university, vet

Summer

The summer holiday has been dragging on for quite a while now. Well at least it has been for me! All schools are about to begin within a week, work never stops for anyone and so that leaves the university students with about half a month of free time with really nothing much to do.

I had meant to utilize my free time this summer for some work and projects which I was hoping to complete during the three months. But, as usual, plans don’t usually go as hoped and procrastination takes the lead. The reason for my procrastination was the fact that I had family all around, and I’m definitely not complaining if that’s what you’re thinking! I adore family and the feel of a crowded home where you know that once you walk out of your bedroom door there is food prepared and there is someone to wish you a good morning and to wish a good morning to! I appreciate this privilege due to the fact that as soon as university starts I will once again be left alone to wake up and have no one to greet me a good morning right away. Too bad!

So far in my summer holiday I have been to Jordan for 1 week and to Turkey for 1 week as well. I spent the rest of the holiday time with my family in our chalet in Lebanon. Traveling is certainly something that some people don’t do and that many people can’t do! So I appreciate that I am able to travel and explore the world. Traveling is not something that I came to love naturally; in-fact if it wasn’t for my father always dragging us along unwillingly to different countries we wouldn’t have come to love the thrill that comes with being a tourist. The better thrill is when you return to those countries you have already visited and you know where to go, what to do and you have a chance to experience more of its culture.

It has just become 1am and I’m about to fall asleep while typing this post! So it must be cut short, but I will be posting more often very soon! So stay updated

A word of advice before ending my post:

The saying “Keep Your Friends Close And Your Enemies Closer” is pure bull-crap. Keep your friends close and you’re good to go ! [why waste your precious time even having enemies!?]

xo Hana

Goodnight Lebanon

I wanted to upload a picture of the start of my beautiful summer holiday, but honestly I’m a tad too lazy at the moment! I truly hope everyone’s summer is starting off great and that the humidity and heat down in Beirut is not TOO bad…

I haven’t posted in a while and I honestly don’t know if my few followers (who are also my closest friends) are still interested in reading what I have to say after I constantly ignored your requests to post more frequently on my blog!

I am currently sitting on the balcony of my chalet which my dad thoughtfully decorated on the inside with coloured couches (which are the most comfortable couches ever) and a beautifully accesorized chimney. Infront of me on the table is a vase filled with beautiful bright pink flowers (which I think are a mutated form of roses) which we picked ourselves from the area although we aern’t allowed to. We would have received a good lecture from the security had they seen us. The weather is gorgeous. How to explain gorgeous? Well; whether you are sitting in shorts and a light t-shirt or if you are sitting in long thick pants and a sweater, you are fine!! The swimming pool infront of me looks so pretty (apologies for using “pretty” go to my English teacher) in the darkness of the night. The pool lights are shining through the water, giving me an image of submarines searching through the oceans for a sunken ship. The green of the surrounding trees are not to be seen anymore due to the night. From afar they look like the simple shadows of the grand trees they are.  The once snow-covered mountain rocks are now available for all to see and explore if they wish to go on a hiking trip. Of-course, leaving the best for last, my favourite part is the garden swing located on our balcony next to the table I am sitting at. Buh. It makes me dizzy but its one hell of a nice couple of seats!

What do you guys like to do during your summer holiday?

I love to……. Suntan, Swim, Suntan, Rollerblade, Socialize, Party, Family Time, Sing, Suntan, Chill .
oh.. and suntan

muah enjoy ur summers my lovelies. I WILL be posting <3

xo Hana

Public Restrooms!!

Ironic as their name is, “Public Restrooms” certainly do not encourage you to rest while in them. I have been to my fair share of public restrooms and I must say that I only go when I really have to. From fast-food restaurants to parks, not many have proven their toilets worthy of being labelled as “clean” or even “acceptable”. Even my own university (and others in the region) have been unable to become outcasts from the stereotypical “dirty toilet”. From graffiti filled with colorful language, to water all over the floor, to lack of tissues & hand-soap and to rotten smells, public restrooms have it all.

Public restrooms, no matter how clean-looking, are always harboring germs since they are being used by different people constantly and all day. Here are a couple of tips of how to use a public restroom if you really have to!

• Use the stall closest to the entrance, this tends to be the least-used.
• Wipe the seat first with toilet paper, then cover it with two layers of toilet paper, or a seat cover (if provided).
• If you insist on not sitting, then you must hover above the toilet seat!
• DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING WITHOUT A TISSUE. Door handles, flush button etc. EVERYTHING.
• Of course, wash your hands!
• When you leave, you MUST follow the tissue rule, open the door with a piece of tissue then find a bin somewhere outside after you’ve left the restroom and throw it in.

You can be rest assured that infectious diseases cannot be carried by someone’s buttocks or thighs, so you are relatively safe regardless of the lack of cleanliness.

…

Dear ladies.. We tend to not have the luxury that men do which is to pee while standing up! I discovered this amazing product while at a festival and I honestly do not know exactly where it can be bought from. The festival was right here in Lebanon, so it is sold here because they were giving them away for free as a promotion. The product is called “P-MATE” and allows you to pee while standing up. I would rather not go into the details on my blog, so here is a direct link to their website:     www.p-mate.com

This opens their middle east website:  www.p-mate.nl/en/where-to-buy/middle-east/
This opens their “Where To Find?” page for Lebanon: www.webpatterns.net/p-mate/where-to-find

…

Now I want to touch on a topic which has bothered me very much throughout my existence. Today at university, a professor entered the restroom and went into one of the stalls. When she was finished, she walked up to the mirror and started fixing her hair (note that this is without washing her hands). She then proceeded to fix her clothes and wipe her hands across her jacket in a motion as to remove dust from it. Then as she turned around to leave the bathroom she realized that another person was in the bathroom and she turned back and opened the water tap. She put both hands under the water, closed the tap, half-dried her hands and left. What in the world!?
Basically, I have observed this also with teachers at my school and other “role-models” of society. [Keep note that I attended one of the best schools and am currently attending one of the best universities!] These people are touching my papers, shaking hands with me, touching the same office equipment as I may use and so many other things. I have never seen a student leave the bathroom without washing her hands! With soap too!
The professor I observed in the university public restroom had contaminated her hair, clothes and skin with germs only God knows about, and simply put a little bit of water on her hands without using soap and dried them off. Is this cleanliness? She portrayed an image of carelessness and an inability in able to maintain self-cleanliness. I am mortified by the number of times I have seen this happen in front of me. Yes I am not exaggerating, Mortified.
Please, my lovely fellow citizens, keep the world a happy place by keeping yourself clean, educating some ridiculously ignorant people on how to keep clean and keep your children clean. That is all I request.

Lots of Love,

xo Hana

Here are some pictures of funny bathrooms:

Friends.

Friend.

One word, 100% positive.

I have heard a certain idea which is that “Gods apology for giving you your family is giving you your friends.” Haha.
Although I adore my family more than anything in the whole world, I must agree just a little bit. Sometimes just to escape the stress and expectations put on me by my family, I turn to my friends as my own little quiet haven. Your friends are a mirror of who you are and they understand you and most of what you are going through more than anyone else can!

Each person has his / her own specific definition of a “friend”. It can mean a whole other thing to someone else than what it does mean to you! But in the end everyones definition of a friend is positive, because friends are a positive things in our life and we CHOOSE to have them.

I have chosen to make my parents and sisters my friends, not only label them as family. I find this very important in our relationship and ability to maintain strong connections with each other throughout life. It is very sad to see, and trust me I have seen it, hate or dislike between siblings, parents and so-on within a family. Me and my sisters know that no matter what happens, we are there for each other and will never doubt that for even a millisecond – and thats what friends are all about!

Friends are there to show you the good side of life, you can learn a lot from them because they are other people. Having friends of all shapes, sizes, ethnicities and life-styles allows you to be exposed to many different situations and ideas which will help you learn about people. I used to go to a British school which was very diverse concerning the nationalities of its students. I had friends from Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Lebanon, India, Jordan, Scotland, Zimbabwe, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Macedonia, Russia, Palestine, England, North America, Somalia and Kuwait, to mention a few. What good did this do for me? You may ask!? Well, here is what it did:

• I can understand nearly every single accent when any person speaks English!
• I have tasted and LOVED traditional meals from all of these diverse cultures (home-made too!)
• I can now easily get along with, and understand the mentality of, nearly anybody who I meet!
• I am immune to becoming a person who stereotypes other people and is a racist towards any specific group!
• I can be proud to have met all of these beautiful people

Over the course of my young life I have not usually been the butt of many racist or stereotypical jokes or remarks, but when I was I felt the pain which some of my friends have to go through on a regular basis. The simple question which comes to mind when this happens is “Now What?”… After a racist, sexist or some other rude person has made an unfair remark about someone else, what do they get out of it? Self-satisfaction? Do they suddenly feel better about themselves? Well.. Then they certainly are very lonely people with empty lives .
What I’m trying to say is that, since ridiculing people is obviously useless and produces no true positive outcome on either side, then why not be friends? If we believe that God put us all here on Earth, then we are all one unit, one community and must learn to understand and APPRECIATE one another.

I appreciate every single person out there . From my closest friends and family, to people who may not like me so much, to people I’ve met only once, to people who I’ve never met and will never meet. I appreciate you because you are just like me, in every single way, and that means we are the same and no one is better or lesser than anyone else .

Friends.

Lots of love, Hana. xo

[Inspired by: Golnaz Essam <3 love u girl ]

Tags: family, friend, friends, love, parent, positive, racism, racist, sexism, sexist, sister, stereotype, strereotypical

Random!

Heyy guys – I must first and foremost apologize for not completing last weeks schedule of posts. Thursday and Friday were extremely busy days for me, and no – not busy with fun! Studies, studies & yes even more studies.

Being a university student rarely gives you any large blocks of free time. I am 100% dedicated to this blog, but there will certainly come some times where i will be unable to deliver – but that will be rare and it’s a promise .

Today I realized that there is one major factor in my life, and this factor will certainly affect my day if it isn’t there. I wouldn’t want to leave my house, I wouldn’t be in the mood to see anyone and I certainly wouldn’t be feeling happy if this factor wasn’t available. Without further a due, this factor is certainly the Sun (L)
The sunshine certainly ensures that I will be having mostly a good day, it makes me happy

During the winter, I had gone through a depression of some sorts. Leaving the house to go to university wasn’t appealing any more, and I never was really in the mood for hanging out with friends (apologies to you all now love u ! ). At first I assumed that this was due to the shock of being in a different country and away from my family finally sinking in. Then, with time, I could pin-point the depression to being seasonal! Seasonal depression is when a person is unhappy for a period of time because of the lack of sunshine and good weather. I am used to having 95% of my year (or even more!) filled with sunshine when I used to live in Kuwait. Now that I have moved to Lebanon for university, I am experiencing a full 4 months in a row of lack of sunshine and quite unpleasant weather (I dislike winter quite a bit). Once the sun began to come out, so did my happiness and willingness to go out and enjoy the day.

So, I dedicate this post to the sun and its indescribable beauty. Without the sun we could not have a gorgeous sunset. Without the sun we could not see the world and all it has to offer. Without the sun we could not see the moon. Without the sun we could not be here. Without the sun, my day lacks happiness.

Thank you God for giving us the sun!

Hope you have a sunny April! (my birthday is on the 25th of April, do not hesitate with getting me gifts )

xo Hana

“Beirut” – Oh Why Do I Love You?

My relationship with Beirut begun with me hating being anywhere near it. I only ever visited it during the summer. I would despise those 1 hour car rides just to get out of Hamra, as the heat and pollution suffocated me. Now you must agree with me that car rides in Lebanon are not on the top of everyones favourite past-times list! I never came to Beirut to do anything other than going to the bank with my dad and other daunting tasks, so you could say that I never really had the time or space to appreciate what’s available.

Since I came to university here, my perspective of Beirut flipped 180 degrees! Isn’t it true that when you first hate something and then you later somehow love it, you love it like you’ve never expected you would!? Well, this is the story of my relationship with Beirut; it certainly transformed into true love for this beautiful city. When I talk about Beirut, I am mainly referring to the area ‘Hamra’! Now, there are a couple of basic rules you must abide by as to be able to love Hamra like I do. If you don’t follow these rules, you are prone to disliking it just a little bit . Here are my ‘Rules To Help You Love Hamra, Beirut’:

1. Don’t Drive Here
2. Don’t Argue With The Angry People
3. If You Enter A Corner Store To Buy Chewing Gum For 2,000 LL And You End Up Leaving Having Paid 10,000 LL For Some Bulls**t That The Clerk Convinced You To Buy, Don’t Go Back. [It Will Happen Again].
4. Make Friends With The Street Kids. [I Now Give Them High Fives Instead Of Five Thousand Liras!]
5. If A Service (Street Cab) Is Going To Cost You As Much As A Taxi, Then Order A Taxi.
6. Be Happy. If You Carry A Happy Attitude, No Angry Beirut-ian Can Put You Down. [They Are Obviously Many Angry People Here, But They Were Angry Before They Saw You! So Give Them A Break].
7. Talking About Service Again (Street Cabs), If You Ever Have To Take One Then Choose The One With The 75 Year Old Driver. [You're Less Likely To Get Harassed That Way - This Applies To Guys As Well ]
8. Go Clubbing At Least Once Or Twice A Month.
9. If You Can Walk There, Then Walk There.
10. Unless You Are An Award-Winning, Record-Breaking, Chicken-Wing Eater, It Is Advisable Not To Fall For The Trick Which Is “Open Wings & Beer”. But, It Seems To Make Us All Happy To Believe That We Are Getting More Food For Less Money – So Enjoy! [Many Restaurants In Beirut Have An Open Wings & Beer Day].

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Before I finish this post I must talk about one of my favourite things to do here in Hamra: Watch late 10:30pm movies with your friends. There is something so different about a movie late at night, rather than one in the middle of the day! I love driving around Hamra, reaching the cinema (usually @ Concorde or ABC Ashrafiye), buying trickets and laughing like drunk people while purchasing the popcorn. You usually go on these trips with your closest friends, or with people who are so “chill” – it’s amazing! Here are a couple of pics of me & Daniella while hyper in my friend’s car on the way back from watching “No Strings Attached” :

Danni & Hana

Danni & Hana 2

Danni vs. Kung Fu Panda

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Now, hope you all have a good night & apologies for the late post – the WordPress website seemed to be having some technical difficulties these past two days and I couldn’t access my Dashboard to post anything earlier!

Take Care, God Bless & Good Night.

xo Hana

Tags: ashrafiye, beer, beirut, beirut city, chicken wings, cinema, clubbing, dashboard, hamra, happy, humor, Kung Fu Panda, movie, open wings, open wings beer, service, university, wednesday, wordpress