Labels
Since I was a little girl, and everything, everyone, every object and every interval of time had a label. Human beings tend to give everything their eyes fall on, a label. For so many reasons I guess. Religions, races, tribes, countries, ages, wages, level of living, different food types..the list never ends.
I always hated the divisions and labelling. Well, no that's a lie. I have always been a person who labels everything and everyone. That girl, the fat girl over there. The thin one up here. The dark colored on the other side. The one who is muslim and the one who is christian. The short one. The tall one. The blonde and the brunette. The smart one, the top of the class, and the one who barely studies.
I remember, I even classified my friends. I had the one with dark skin and the one with the white skin, in order for my mum to remember which is which, and with the fact that they both had the same names, so there skin defined who they were instead of saying their last names.
This went on for years.
Until a day that I do not know when exactly, I hated that. I hated it so much and found it pure racism, that even in our talk we classify people, according to some facts they possessed without having a choice. They had no hands in being colored, their religion, where they lived, or how they looked. They were given all of that, born with it and lived with it. I also hated the fact that I would be categorized like I did. I hated to be labeled under the "Girl Category", "Arab Category", "Muslim Category" or any other categories. I wanted to be seen as who I am and what I do, not what I was given at birth. I wanted to be seen as who I became not who I was.
But, I have to stress the fact that I hated labeling "humans", not things. Imagine eating a beautiful fruit and never knowing its name? Or being to a beautiful heavenly place without knowing where it is located? You cannot go to the supermarket and ask the seller for "the best fruit I ever tried, where can I find that please?", and you cannot go to the train station or the airport asking for "that beautiful heavenly place, that I have been last month, take me back, one ticket to that if you please."
You gotta have a label. A name. Something to describe that beautiful feeling you felt eating this or visiting that or any other thing that made you feel incredibly satisfied, incredibly calm and indescribably at peace.
I need a label for the best places I have been to, the amazing food I tasted, the wonderful books I have read, the interesting films I have seen, the best friends I have spent my time with, the love of my life to share a future with.
I realized, it is okay to label some stuff after all.
It is okay to put a label to us.
I always hated the divisions and labelling. Well, no that's a lie. I have always been a person who labels everything and everyone. That girl, the fat girl over there. The thin one up here. The dark colored on the other side. The one who is muslim and the one who is christian. The short one. The tall one. The blonde and the brunette. The smart one, the top of the class, and the one who barely studies.
I remember, I even classified my friends. I had the one with dark skin and the one with the white skin, in order for my mum to remember which is which, and with the fact that they both had the same names, so there skin defined who they were instead of saying their last names.
This went on for years.
Until a day that I do not know when exactly, I hated that. I hated it so much and found it pure racism, that even in our talk we classify people, according to some facts they possessed without having a choice. They had no hands in being colored, their religion, where they lived, or how they looked. They were given all of that, born with it and lived with it. I also hated the fact that I would be categorized like I did. I hated to be labeled under the "Girl Category", "Arab Category", "Muslim Category" or any other categories. I wanted to be seen as who I am and what I do, not what I was given at birth. I wanted to be seen as who I became not who I was.
But, I have to stress the fact that I hated labeling "humans", not things. Imagine eating a beautiful fruit and never knowing its name? Or being to a beautiful heavenly place without knowing where it is located? You cannot go to the supermarket and ask the seller for "the best fruit I ever tried, where can I find that please?", and you cannot go to the train station or the airport asking for "that beautiful heavenly place, that I have been last month, take me back, one ticket to that if you please."
You gotta have a label. A name. Something to describe that beautiful feeling you felt eating this or visiting that or any other thing that made you feel incredibly satisfied, incredibly calm and indescribably at peace.
I need a label for the best places I have been to, the amazing food I tasted, the wonderful books I have read, the interesting films I have seen, the best friends I have spent my time with, the love of my life to share a future with.
I realized, it is okay to label some stuff after all.
It is okay to put a label to us.
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