As my semester abroad comes to an end, I write this last blog post with a heavy heart and a great load of wonderful memories. Reminiscing on my first post, I realize my identity has not changed much but it definitely grew stronger and by that I mean that my pride in it has multiplied. Experiencing such a diverse and welcoming scene where people from all over Asia and many European natives, now expats, have built an environment of respect and discipline and have proven that this cohabitation is not as difficult to achieve as other areas of the world have portrayed. I have realized that my identity as a global citizen has deepened and affirmed further than ever before thanks to my several opportunities to travel, explore and familiarize with such different cultures. I have been around so many nationalities and languages such as regional Malay, Mandarin, Bahasa, Tagalog... Moreover, I have had the incredible honor of visiting some areas of Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Australia and Thailand. This thirst for discovery and wanderlust has grown insatiable as I constantly battled between classes and expanding my array of foreign visits and cultural knowledge to learn from. The hardest part about returning home would definitely be leaving this City-State hub called Singapore—connecting you to so many other amazing places, a literal door for travel lovers as myself. Another hard reality is putting an enormous distance between friends that you developed special bonds with but will become dispersed all over the world. The good side is that I now have a global network of friends and we can visit each other. Indeed, plans and dates have already been reserved for reunions in the coming future. I have also shared contact information with my professors to keep in touch with. Although I have had an incredible experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world, I’m happy to find the comfort of home in Morocco for a few weeks before heading back to GW and finding a certain stability for one last semester where my weekends will look like Gelman library dates and not Singapore Changi airport meetings en route for yet another adventure.
Tag: Fatima Zahra Kassidi
Respect and Tolerance in Diversity Build Strong Identities
The real big identity speech I had from my family did not take place before me heading to Singapore for study abroad but actually when I first embarked in my college journey. Indeed, Singapore wasn’t my first real relatively long term adventure away from home but going to the US for higher education after graduating high school in Morocco was. My whole community was encouraging me to make a choice of staying closer to home where most graduating teenagers from Morocco went: France. In that way, they wanted me to remember where I came from and be able to come back home to a certain comfort and safety as often as possible. However, I made the decision to cut ties and fly away to the destination that had the education and life I thought I would flourish the most in. The thought of being independent and learning to make myself safe without the shadows of my community was vital. However my family did not understand this aspect at first as I was leaving to a deemed very far place compared to the average high school graduates. The first support I had from my family when they started to be more understanding of my decision as I was preparing to leave across the ocean was my mother and grand parents filling a whole luggage of Moroccan food and sweets to store when I arrive so that a piece of the culture would stay with me as I settled in the new foreign environment, an idea that I thought was very important to sustain. I remember having a conversation on the phone with my mom about a month after moving in my campus dorm and starting my first semester of freshman year—she reminded me that even though I saw people doing things I was in no way obligated to do the same things just to try to fit in. In that same conversation she also made sure to remind me that people are raised with different values whether they are cultural or religious and in some cases that meant you won’t feel the same excitement about doing some things. And most importantly she told me that this didn’t mean that I couldn’t fit in, quite the contrary, differences make people more interesting and are an incredible way to keep an open mind and learn about each other but only when respect and tolerance are strong foundations. This speech still resonates with me today every time I travel some place new in the world for whatever purpose. The respect of diversity has been such an important thought to me ever since and it helped me build and maintain life long relationships throughout the past few years shaping my current identity. I learned to be able to stand up for my beliefs and never feel constrained to act in some ways for the simple satisfaction of feeling like I belong somewhere. If anything is meant to happen then it will find a way to see life and anything feeling forced shouldn’t be entertained. That is the main thing that I was taught by my community every time I went away and that shaped who I am today and how I engage with both the world and people. I always felt like my identity is constantly changing but it was never really challenged until I crossed national borders and was left to grow on my own and adapt in unfamiliar settings while still remembering and being proud of my original sources.
What Makes Singapore Beautiful?
1- The first set of photos was taken in Hajji Lane—a colorful place full of great ambiance, charming coffee shops, bars, vintage boutiques and arts on the street walls. A great sense of Singapore community can be felt there and one of my favorite spots.
2- This picture however is Arab Street. There are lots of delicious Arab food specialties for you to try. In the back you can see the mosque where muslims come for prayers. In some way I feel a sense of home as there is a Moroccan restaurant I can go to when feeling homesick.
3- This last picture was taken in Little India. If you like Indian food and culture, it’s the place to be. It is a very vibrant community in Singapore with lots of colors and culturally inspired art.
A Constantly Developing Identity
Growing up, my identity had always been an aspect of my person and character that was continuously challenged. However as of now, I am a strongly affirmed, 20 years old, muslim female and international Moroccan student, that worked hard to secure a position at a prestigious US university. I was born and raised in a Arab country that has a strong post-colonial culture, as French is still a commonly spoken language and an important portion of the Moroccan youth is still attending a French pedagogical system and are sent out to study in France after High School. In this way, when I am asked what my native language is, I seem to find myself struggle finding the adequate answer—I consider both French and Arabic to be my native languages but people usually expect you to only identify with one. Furthermore, Morocco is composed of a great amount of Berbers in addition of Arabs, my father being a Berber and my mother an Arab. Thus, the simple fact of being my parents’ daughter is already a great source of rich ancestral history to identify with.
Throughout my childhood, I never identified myself with any particular aspect of my culture. Indeed, I wasn’t much of a Moroccan traditional food, music or even clothing lover, I didn’t realize how beautiful and unique they all were until I moved to the US for my undergraduate studies. I would say leaving your country is the most relevant trigger to awaken your love for it. Although I enjoy being fully immersed here, in the US, it is still natural to feel homesick and start looking for places that remind you of your home identity. Moroccan restaurants were my go to in case of identity crisis but also calling my best friends or parents, just to be able to speak and hear some Arabic and/or French. The beauty of leaving the place you grew up in, dreaming of finally becoming the independent self you always wanted to be, is the realization of what you are leaving behind.
All of this is true, an important part of my identity is based on my Moroccan identity, but it is not limited to that. The other part of my identity, is being a global citizen, always looking for new experiences to further understand who I am and who I want to be. Coming to study in the US is the first thing I did towards that direction and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My American experience is also a part of my identity and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it. Moreover, to fulfill my aim at integrating my global citizenship to my identity, I try to have as much international experiences as I possibly can, which is why I was extremely excited to intern in Geneva, Switzerland, last summer. This internship gave me the opportunity to travel and let myself flourish in all kinds of environments and cultures, I was able to visit Switzerland, France, Belgium, Monaco, Croatia and the Netherlands, all in only 2 amazing months. I’m extremely grateful for all the learning opportunities life threw at me during that summer and it encouraged me even more to continue on expanding my horizons but this time I flew East. Asia is such a mysterious and grand continent that I am just starting to discover. I’m hoping this study abroad opportunity in Singapore will help me incorporate a whole new dimension to my identity. Indeed it has been a little over a month that I first step foot in this part of the world and I already feel all the different array of cultures and the incredible environment impacting me in a way that makes me so much more grateful about where life has led me this far and how it has shaped me as a person.