My Grandfather
^My Grandfather’s initials, laid in the bricks of our family home in Amman.
Mahmoud Shalabi, my grandfather, lived most his life in Jordan, removed from his home in Nablus, Palestine.
He studied in Egypt, worked as a civil engineer in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and spent a short time in the U.S studying our highway infrastructure.
My Father
My Father has never seen our homeland. He grew up in Jordan, studied in the states, and recently, the time he’s spent here has eclipsed all the time he’s spent anywhere else. Like so many other members of the Palestinian Diaspora, he still dreams of home, despite never knowing it. The joint sense of grief and resolve that comes with this has permeated every aspect of our life in the Chicago suburbs. America has been a constant reminder of placelessness while serving as the country that allows us to forge a new, eclectic identity.
Me
I have a difficult time determining what to make of who I am. I am Palestinian who has never seen his home, a U.S.-Jordanian Dual citizen, and I have yet to find my place in this world. The identity that transcends all is my Islam. At least 5 times every day, I, along with 2 Billion others point the same direction and worship our one creator. The truth of the matter is that I'm defined by my relation to God, my unity with anyone who submits themselves to him. Mohammad Peace Be Upon Him once said “Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange, so glad tidings to the strangers.’” I take this hadith as an invitation to make my place, just as all those who came before me, no matter where, also did.
HAWA
The air we breathe moves through places before it ever reaches us.
From the sand of Arabia to the serenity of the steppes.
From Meiji shrines at dawn to rooftop calls in Cairo.
From the backstreets of Lagos to the tram lines in Paris.
From Chicago winters to Brazil’s Beaches.
It has passed over wars and weddings,
factories and fields,
stadiums, studios, and small forgotten rooms.
The same air fills every chest.
The same nourishing breath, under the same endless sky.