moodalicious creative hand

Today, I visited my REAL home with my granma and brother to get some stuff before my dad sells/rents the house.. After I got what I needed, I sat and started weeping.... All the memories.. Most of my life was there.. I miss my room.. I miss the kitchen.. I miss the whole cozy place, rather than the house I moved to which is about 3 or 4 times bigger than this one... Everything reminds me of memories.. I miss it.. Every snapshot I took has its impact on me..

I used to be the one who plays basketball, but I saw a ball back there that I didn't even recall using. It must have been mine but it hurts me that I can't even remember. It's like time passes by and I keep losing memories.

See the water tank? That made me lose grades in physics 1. The question was: where is the best place to place a water tank, up the roof, or on ground level?.. Logic told me up the roof, because we wouldn't have had to use a water pump. Reality told me that our water tank is on ground level. Reality made me lose a point or two in the final physics exam.

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Room, dear, room.. The days I had a queen sized bed.. Everything in the house I live in is bigger, except for my room. I remember when I entered my room today, and I had a weird feeling and I cried. I miss it.. I miss the desk I where I used to study, draw, use my laptop.... etc I miss my closet.. It used to hold anything and everything! I miss that couch where I used to restrict my lil brother, Yazeed, o it whenever he decided to hang out in my room. I miss my pillows. I miss my bed. I miss my striped walls. I miss my guitar I never used. I miss the books I got but never read. I miss having TWO windows instead of one. I miss the carpet that could get darker or lighter, depends on which side u "comb" it. I miss that "chamber" that used to hold all my art supplies. I miss trying to get my lil bro out of the room when he makes me chase him around the room, up and down the bed, around the sofa and out of the door. I miss the scratches and holes on the outer side of my bedroom door that indicates the time Yazeed was trying to get me to open the door. I miss my surround sound system, where I can throw my own DJ party in my room during study breaks. I miss the "hide-outs" for hiding my junk whenever I'm supposed to "clean my room". I miss controlling the AC from my room, and how I used to turn it off after the shower, and my older bro, Talal, comes knocking my door telling me to turn it back on, for it controls the AC in his room too. I just.. miss my room the most!


The way to achieve your goals is to have them clear in front of you. Apparently, none of the goals I put for last summer were achieved. I still admire how I used to write my goals on that board. It's sad that I can't get myself to actually do what I've written, but at least I try. Now I have my iPad to organize my goals/projects/schedules.. Still, this continues to be a nice memory reminding me of the hardships I faced before I got the iPad :P

Dad's office. Always has been a total mess, but now it's messier than ever. I remember the times my dad used to sit on the chair and my two brothers and I try to find space to sit or stand around him, as he shows us cool stuff on his "latest" computer. I remember how my dad had every latest technology in this little space under our stairs. We used to call it "Al-Mamlaka Al-Mahmoodya", which means the Mahmoudya Kingdom (my dad's name is Mahmoud)

Ahh, my first article published in Aramco's newspaper, The Arabian Sun. Abdullah Joma'a, Aramco's former president, wrote me a letter longer than my own article complementing me for writing it. I was 12. My dad got excited, and he put both the article and the letter in a frame. That frame had hung on my wall for 6 years, until today.



Oh our carpet stairs! The set of 50% of the times I fell. I remember how I used to race Yazeed to reach my room and lock the door before he could catch me. I remember the sound, the beat, I used to climbed up the stairs hurrying to the room right in front of it upstairs. Unlike the cement stairs in my new house (I don't even feel comfortable saying MY new house), these stairs leave little or no injury when you fall (very useful for someone like me). I remember when Yazeed and I used to climb down the stairs slowly wearing roller skates eager to try out our beginner skills in skating.


YAZEED'S ROOM! He has better furniture than I do. I have no idea why he preferred my room over his. Maybe because he loves me too much, or he just want to satisfy his duties as a brother and annoy me. His bed is the most comfy bed in the house! When I visited the room today, I didn't even try to lie down there, or I know I would've never gotten up. I miss lying there from time to time, urging Yazeed to chat with me in HIS room not mine for once. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, the mirror that shows you a full view of yourself. I remember my mom and I used to go to his room whenever we're all fancy and dressed up for an occasion to check ourselves out with our awesome dresses (I love dresses!)...

Talal's room... for some reason when my parents used to gather all three of us for lectures, uhh, I mean,, pieces of wisdom, we used to come here. Now the carpet is removed (long story) and everything (like the rest of the house) is chaos. I remember how Talal used to treasure cool stuff in his room and gives off some of them to Yazeed and me every once in a while. That cart on the right has the COOLEST stuff. Today, Talal gave me the last piece of treasure he kept as new as he did with his SAT books. But of course, when Talal went to the US for college, a lot of his valuable items magically disappeared from his room and, magically reappeared in my room's drawers.


KITCHEN! The second most place I spend my time in. This kitchen has witnessed all the times I tried to cook, all the times I ate sandwiches between every two meals, and all the times I tried weird projects or experiments. I remember the cabinet doors that used to fall on my head sometimes. FUN..



The living room.. Wow, the silly remote fights (I was always the bystander, the fights take place in this room and between Talal and Yazeed). Ahh, I remember when we used to sit here whenever granma comes and get some BASKIN ROBINS ICE CREAM <3 I remember how we used to eat lunch here sometimes and violate mom's rules (no eating in the living room). However, I remembered how it was "ok" to eat here whenever mom joined us during lunch or dinner..

Best room in the house. LOVE the furniture. Reminds me of the times I gathered my friends in Ramadan or in other occasions. I remember how my mom hand picked every piece in that room. I remember how proud she was after it was all ready and perfect. Now, it's all going down the drain. We will take the furniture but all the painted walls and the floor's ceramic also took their share from my mom's efforts in this room. Every piece and every color completed the other.




What used to be a heaven, full of green plants and colorful flowers, is officially a desert. Everything was so beautiful and soothing.. I liked it when we occasionally dined outside. I liked how we used to play in the grass.. I liked it when we sat under the gazebo and chilled with friends/family. It was such a nice garden. All that faded, and now I can't remember how heavenly it really was. Memories.....








I used to play basketball with Yazeed here. I always won and he always cheated. He wasn't so bad, he's a good shooter, but I guess I'm better :D







Last, and LEAST.. I'm not really gonna miss this, but it's a memory.. This is a school right next to our house. Boys used to wreck whatever belonged to us outside our house (like the car... one is in the garage and one isn't), and they used to gather and hang out here, and we used to get bothered by them each time we come from school because they blocked the way..





Overall, I'm gonna miss my house.. and I really regret that I recall so little memories. After all those years I lived in that house, this is what I remember?!
Anyways, now I'm gonna go wherever destiny takes me. Away from Saudi maybe, and I'd have a lot more to miss! But that was the last time I visit our house, and now, whoever's gonna stay there shall make new memories and erase every hint of my own off that building.. I love you bait al-dana!

  Your shoes, your clothes, your pens, your notebooks, even your food are infected with a deadly disease. Wear your shoes too long and you might end up getting infected with it. What is it, you might ask? Is it deadly? Yes it is! It is so deadly that its effects are not apparent only after decades. What is it, maybe we can help get rid of it, cure those infected with it? No you can't! Unless you have the will power of 6 billion people on planet Earth. It's everywhere. Every thing you see is infected with it, you might be sitting on it right this moment. You can't hide from it, you just can't.
 Ok I think I can take it, just tell me what it is! Fine it is the evil material we all well know as plastic. Plastic?! That's the disease you were talking about? Plastic isn't evil, it's the best material to human kind. That's what it wants you to think. It seeps into your clothes and your everyday lives making you think that you can't live without it. Then when you are addicted to it, it strikes its deadly stroke. What is going to do? It will kill millions of animals by invading their digestive systems, because animals were too naive to know that it isn’t food. Then it will it reproduce in massive numbers making humans trying to get rid of it anywhere, but the increase in the population will lead to throwing it out in the ocean. The ocean is huge; nothing will happen if we throw a few plastic bottles in it? What?! What about the fish and living creatures they will end up infected with it eventually. Who cares about fish? Don’t you love eating that creamy grilled fish fillet every weekend? Oh, never mind. Then after that humans will try to recycle plastic, but what they don’t know is that it will only make it stronger. Recycling may seem as a good idea, but it will only make them more addicted to it, because recycling just means wasting money, and making them think that they can't live without it. Then as everyone becomes addicted, the world will start to get hotter and hotter. That’s ok, I like the summer. Do you like that this so called summer will eventually melt the ice caps and boil oceans and erupt volcanoes? Plastic has deadly gases in it that emit every time we make it or recycle it. These gasses seep into the air and captivate the sun's rays making the world hotter. Some kinds of plastic even use CFCs in them. Wait, what are CFCs, and there are more kinds of plastic?! Yes, there are a myriad of kinds all eviler than the other. There is PET that we use in water bottles, and PS that we use in burger containers, PP that we find in food containers, and PVC that we find in our curtains. It's everywhere! Yes it is! As I was saying PS uses CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons that when emitted creep up to the ozone layer and slowly gets rid of it. But how? The ozone layer is made up of O3, when CFCs comes around it turns it into O2, so basically deteriorating it. The ozone layer is responsible of blocking the sun's harmful rays from us. With no more ozone layer humans get infected with skin cancer and more. And there is nothing we can do about it.


But I'm sure we can think of something. The only thing we can do is stop using plastic, stop depending on it in everything we do and use, stop and look for alternatives, planet Earth is full of wondrous things we can use, yet we couldn’t find anything except oil! We can use bio-plastic, glass, or steel. Instead of using plastic bags, bring your own bag. Stop using plastic water bottles and buy a stainless steel one. If we can get 6 billion people to do that we can get our Earth back. The world will change, but the change starts with you.

Yours truley, Rowa, Mayadah, Fatima, and Maram...