The carrot
By Iman Tabbara Alayli, Staff Writer

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - One of the main differences between us and other creatures is our ability to aspire, to dream that we might achieve a better life. However, we keep changing our dreams.

Not because our aspirations have changed but because we have come to the realization that most of our dreams are far fetched, or life throws us in the weirdest of scenarios. We end up settling for something different, not necessarily less, but different. In my case, what I want seems to be unachievable. Although simple, my plan for working for my father and learning from him seems to be temporarily unattainable, seeing that we live in different countries. So I looked for the next best thing: an alternative. The alternative turned out to be working for a well established law firm in Saudi Arabia.

Even though it took quite some time to find a job I eventually found one. Ironically, the only vacancy they had was for an office manager with legal background. The closer I get to achieving what I set out for, the further away it seems to be from my dream. Funny right? Well not really, but this is the best way to look at it, or else I’ll go crazy. This is the hand I’ve been dealt. Every time I try to visualize the ironic twist of events that is my life all I can see is the caricature of the donkey following a carrot at the end of the fishing rod. This is the carrot that has been dangled in front of me. Hopefully, one day I’ll catch that damn carrot. Let’s hope that when I do, it tastes good.

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