Inspired by a new album I heavily listened to in Turkey.

Hello, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? So many that’s good has happened since.

To name a few: I bought a car, I moved to a new team, my college friend visited me in Dubai, I went hiking, I traveled to Turkey, and I reunited with my family.

While there were also many “bad”, I wanted to take the time to write about the good.

To start, we got our first car in a quite amusing way. When my husband finally got his driving license (which costed around 5,000 dirhams and 4 months of training in total), we rented a car for about a month to test the waters and see whether we really needed one. And, surely enough, we needed one. Living far from the city and finally being able to ride on our own made us quickly realize that public transportations can only get us so far.

Having a car was honestly something that we’ve always known we needed to properly live in Dubai. But my principle in life is to always buy in cash, in full. My dad vehemently opposed buying anything with money I don’t have. So buying a car was a longstanding battle, because it would mean a huge cash outflow.

That being said, cars in Dubai can be notoriously cheap, especially if you buy secondhand. The struggle was finding a good and trustworthy secondhand. And that is where I believe He has made it easy for me to stick to my principle.

Our 11-year-old car we call Mimi was less than 10,000 dirhams. We found her from Facebook when the algorithm mischievously suggested a post of Mimi on my husband’s homepage. That same day, we visited the address listed and thankfully, it wasn’t a scam.

The seller was a kindhearted and generous Jordan-Palestinian man who’s lived in Dubai for almost 20 years. When we finally sealed the deal the night of October 5th, I stopped dead in my tracks and tugged at my husband’s arm. It was an eye opening experience for me that life, someway somehow, could ever lead to this moment—buying our first car, in Dubai, from a Jordan-Palestinian man. 2 years ago we would have never imagined such a thing to happen. And buying Mimi did truly change how we live here for the better.

For one, it helped me transition to the new team without having to worry about getting to the office and getting home on time. In the new team, I unfortunately have to work longer hours because the new set of clients proves to be a bigger challenge than my last. While I did struggle during the first couple of months due to the workload, I am a lot happier with the work that I do because I have the opportunity to work with global brands again—which is my specialty (I think).

Having Mimi also helped us guide Haikal, my old college friend, to tour around Dubai on his layover to Istanbul. I had prepared a full day itinerary for him, and I highly recommend anyone who’s coming here to do the same!

• 08:00 Morning walk & breakfast at Salt Kite Beach
• 10:00 View The View Palm Jumeirah, get coffee, then ride the Monorail if time allows
• 11:30 Get on an Abra Tour at Souk Madinat Jumeirah
• 12:30 Go to Burj Khalifa, have lunch at P.F. Chang’s, then walk around Dubai Mall
• 14:30 Tour Old Dubai if time allows

This is a very compact and simple itinerary though, and I’m definitely missing some great places or to-do’s. Regardless, I’m glad Haikal enjoyed the trip.

Then comes hiking.

It may sound silly, especially if you know me, but I’ve always been drawn to hiking. Going out and into nature, walking vigorously towards a mountaintop far above the ground, felt like living one of humanity’s greatest, yet most fundamental, feats.

So my husband and I went on one in Ras Al Khaimah. As you can tell, I have quite the imaginative mind (including when it comes to my ability), so I was not expecting to struggle on trails that were already paved in concrete, let alone consider how my fear of heights would tamper with my ambition to make hiking a regular thing. I was completely convinced that my body would enjoy it, but my legs were shaking from the flight of stairs, and admittedly, fear! It felt absolutely ridiculous to my inner, younger soul that I would ever be afraid of something so natural to the human body.

Still, I managed to come up on top with the help of my loving husband’s persistent and steady support.

It felt wonderful to triumph over my fear and “exhaustion”, which was really just my lazy, untrained brain craving for the comfort of a “safe” and familiar territory. At that moment, I recall one of Robin S. Sharma’s lessons on fear, worry, and anxiety.

Worry drains the mind much of its power, and, sooner or later, it injures the soul.

In my religion too, I was taught that worry is the tool used by the devil to weaken our faith and trust in The Almighty.

Much of my early twenties was spent living in constant worry. Which was understandable because COVID was rampant. But I don’t think COVID could bring about an incessant, irrational fear of tall buildings, elevators, thin doors, a loud noise, a hint of smoke in the air, a random fragrant scent, a single checkmark on a message, and every other absurd “fear” my mind can conjure.

To be fair, I did go through a number of traumatic events at that time. But I should have known better than to consistently consume true crime podcasts, as well as thriller and tragedy/disaster contents—which is one of the few things I have stopped doing to help improve my state of mind. I wanted to protect my most extraordinary garden from toxic waste, and cultivate the enormous power of my mind to focus on discovering my purpose and realizing my lifework.

The hike went on to help me face the travel to Turkey head on. I did not know it, but I will have the most breathtaking trip in the longest time, including a flying experience that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

To be continued…