2008 Woodie Awards
Lessons of a hard summer
Parisa Saranj is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at pmw300@yahoo.com
Issue date: 9/2/08 Section: Editorial / Opinion
The first few weeks of fall semester when students run into each other and cheerfully ask how their summer was, is what I hate the most. It is just too painful to get the words out. My summer wasn't just so boring or ordinary that I would feel less cool to say "it was OK." My summer was inhumane. It was a brutality that no young college student should ever face.
My summer was full of things that might be somewhat unfamiliar to the readers. It began with a Kafan. It is a white, simple, cotton cloth wrapped around the dead body of a Muslim for burial which Islamic laws demand in order to promote simplicity in life and after death. As simple as that cloth, there was an empty bed which I was told my mother once laid upon. So, my summer went on with days and nights of feeling soulless and dead inside. And to make it perfect, there were long, dry and heated afternoons with few hours of daily power outage.
My summer was spent where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30. They live in a country that has the highest prevalence of opiate abusers in the Middle East. So, my summer went on showing me how some of that 70 percent to numb the pain of living in anxiety, unemployment, inflation and decades of American embargoes.
I felt betrayed the most by my summer when I met a favorite cousin after many years. She is a young, unemployed woman in her early 30s who was forced to give up education years ago due to her family's financial problems, and did not choose to take refuge in drugs as many in her situation are doing. She looked into the distance and said, "I have no hope or desire for life." How na've I felt as I told her about my endless growth and adventures in the great U.S.A., and she told me how life has been for her. I had forgotten how life had stopped long ago for thousands of women like her in Iran and millions others in the world.
So once again, life granted me more wisdom. This time too, it took the hard way to teach. Life took my mother to remind me of great love and sacrifices I was surrounded with. Life showed me my perished yet hopeful country to warn me how vulnerable nations are to the dirty game of politics and the profit of the greater powers.
My summer was full of things that might be somewhat unfamiliar to the readers. It began with a Kafan. It is a white, simple, cotton cloth wrapped around the dead body of a Muslim for burial which Islamic laws demand in order to promote simplicity in life and after death. As simple as that cloth, there was an empty bed which I was told my mother once laid upon. So, my summer went on with days and nights of feeling soulless and dead inside. And to make it perfect, there were long, dry and heated afternoons with few hours of daily power outage.
My summer was spent where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30. They live in a country that has the highest prevalence of opiate abusers in the Middle East. So, my summer went on showing me how some of that 70 percent to numb the pain of living in anxiety, unemployment, inflation and decades of American embargoes.
I felt betrayed the most by my summer when I met a favorite cousin after many years. She is a young, unemployed woman in her early 30s who was forced to give up education years ago due to her family's financial problems, and did not choose to take refuge in drugs as many in her situation are doing. She looked into the distance and said, "I have no hope or desire for life." How na've I felt as I told her about my endless growth and adventures in the great U.S.A., and she told me how life has been for her. I had forgotten how life had stopped long ago for thousands of women like her in Iran and millions others in the world.
So once again, life granted me more wisdom. This time too, it took the hard way to teach. Life took my mother to remind me of great love and sacrifices I was surrounded with. Life showed me my perished yet hopeful country to warn me how vulnerable nations are to the dirty game of politics and the profit of the greater powers.
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