It's the first night away from home, without family, away from your favorite blanket and your favorite night-light. You're scared to death but excited at the same time. It's a new environment with sleeping bags spread across the floor and whispers echoing. You all cluster together making tents out of bed sheets and then tell scary stories that haunt your childish mind throughout the endless night. Every child looks forward to her first sleepover with her best friends. My friend was planning a night of harmless girl fun at her house and I was invited to attend. We were all thrilled to spend the night watching movies, having pillow fights, and conducting a fashion show to strut our stylish silliness. The entire week before the exciting affair my friends and I couldn't stop talking about all the ridiculous fun we would have.
I came running home from the school bus stop shrieking to my parents about the sleepover. I was jumping up and down on the kitchen floor rambling on and on about the events we had already planned. Their immediate response was, "Absolutely no sleepovers; no ifs, ands or buts about it." One obstacle standing in the way of my attending the most thrilling event for an eleven year old girl: my parents. My childhood experience with the other kids my age was completely shut down by my Egyptian parents. I wouldn't be able to participate in a childhood milestone due to my parent's refusal. I felt like I was the only girl missing out on all the laughs with my friends because of my parent's strict principles. I was crushed.
The years passed. While attending middle school and high school, I discovered that I was one of the few Egyptian students in my school. Students and teachers were curious to learn about my culture, which encouraged me to expose my unique heritage rather than to suppress it. Because we didn't live in an area with many Egyptians there seemed to be a "bubble" of oddity about us that I always attributed to my family. My family always seemed a little different from my friends' families. For example, my parents seemed much more austere than my friends' parents concerning seemingly normal issues like spending a night at a friends' house. At times, we ate traditional egyptian cuisine such as kahk, a sweetbread, or sometimes we even ate mullkhia, a thick green soup made from chicken or meat broth. Also, my mom's incessant need for me to get overly dressed for church services was a daily battle.
My parents saw how my brother and I started to forget our Egyptian sense of heritage as we began to fit with the other students. We decided to take a trip to Egypt to rekindle past relationships as well as renew our ethnic identity. My first trip to Egypt involved spending time with family, eating delicious Egyptian food, and trying to get over our new language barrier. During my first trip to Egypt, it amazed and encouraged me to see how close my extended family were even though we hadn't seen each other in years. The connection I had with them sparked a sense of identity and belonging. The next few times I went to Egypt, I volunteered at a Christian Organization called Beit el Salam meaning "House of Peace" where I organized church camps for Egyptian teenagers and adults. The times I volunteered opened my eyes to see that teenagers are all the same throughout the world. We all face the same problems and situations, except we approach them differently. My journey back to my home country opened my eyes to my parent's view on life. As I have matured, I have begun to understand why my parents have been so rigid. But I have also noticed their ability to unclench their grip on my budding decision-making abilities in order for my life to reflect my own view on life, which is as an Egyptian American.
To be an American is great, but to be a great Egyptian American means a remembrance, as well as an understanding of your ethnic history. I comprehend that money, success, and material goods are all fleeting but a sense of identity of who you are is very important and stays with you your entire life. For most people, being an Egyptian American seems like a category of ethnicity and birthplace but I believe people should be defined by so much more than that. As an Egyptian American I am defined by my past as much as by my present. I have a responsibility to learn about my ancestors and to have knowledge of my culture. However, I see myself as a mixture of both America and Egypt, trying to keep my life in balance. I shouldn't be restricted from becoming "American" instead I explore two avenues of life, both equally important to me.
