Living in the UAE comes with so many benefits; if it didn’t, we wouldn’t be here, would we? But life here isn’t perfect; some of the few downfalls of living here are the friendships you make. How can friendships be bad? Because everyone leaves!
The UAE is a ‘transit’ country. People come and go, on to their new lives or back to their old ones. I can’t relate to most of these people because I’ve been in the UAE since I was three. I have rarely met another expat who’s been in the country for a big a percentage of their lives as me.
I now find myself trying to distance myself from intimate friendships. I try to stray between cliques, where my friends are all ages, religions, and nationalities. I do this because I do not want to be hurt when reality strikes and someone I care about has to leave the country. I want to avoid the pain that happened when some of my closest friends left.
My neighbor was in my grade 3 through 7, and was also my best friend. In the summer of the sixth grade she told me she was moving to Canada. I was absolutely shattered. Who was I going to spend my time with? Since I wasn’t ‘popular’, was I going to be alone? Those questions haunted me, filling me with dread and selfishness. We began our long-distance relationship with late phone calls and Facebook messages. Soon contact became less and farther apart until, eventually, they stopped altogether. I still like to say that she was an extremely important part of my life.
Another friend I met in 5th grade also met with the same fate. We were really close – we bonded well because we saw ourselves as outcasts, shunned by our peers. She was shy and not a lot of people heard her speak, but she did not feel insecure around me. Just when we were at the height of our friendship, she left to Sweden. I’m still in touch with her: we Skype, snapchat, and call each other often. She’s now a big shot model in Sweden, Tokyo, and LA. If she could go from an introvert to a confident model, I too can achieve my goals and follow my dreams. I am so thankful for the friendship we share, but I also resent the distance that has come between us.
Ever since she left, I’ve come out of my shell and have begun to socialize with different people, with many groups of friends. I still don’t have a best friend for fear of the day one of us moves or graduates. When I graduate I know all my friends will no longer be with me, proving that avoiding the pain of separation is pointless. On the bright side, who knows, maybe I’ll end up reuniting with the friends that have left before.
Photo courtesy of videoinspiration
By Nisma Hamid/@nismahamid
