By: Passant Omar
There is a saying that goes “your freedom stops where another’s begins”. It means that you can have the freedom you want as long as it does not affect or control someone else’s freedom. Freedom should not only be associated with other people; it should also respect the society you live in.
We live in a culture where it’s not easy to go beyond the norm
The majority of our society lives within the restrictions of our norms and traditions. Meaning that, no matter how you choose to live, in a way or another you wouldn’t go beyond the norm. Of course norms differ from one social class to another, but it somehow all sinks down to one norm and one culture experienced differently. Those who break the norms while still respecting others are usually discriminated against and criticized when they have actually been very brave.
Society’s expectations for us
What is expected from us as a society living in Egypt differs from any other country. In our community, we are expected to finish school, get married and have a stable source of income. We are constantly stressed out with the fact that this is how we should spend our lives. We end up doing what we should do and just sparkle the routine with the weekend outings with friends and the quick travels around Egypt or even outside, depends on what we can afford, just to take a break. What happens in the process is that somehow we forget about what we really want in life; we forget to fill our souls.
Engineering and Medicine shouldn’t be the only respected professions
Everyone has different interests that they wish to pursue like exploring the world, making a real change in their society or even dedicating their lives to research. The problem is that we never get the space to do that because we will automatically be categorized as failures and the biggest disappointments to our parents. It’s still not really recognized by our society that you can not be engineers or doctors and still be successful. In fact, it takes a lot of generations and effort to prove our point.
Your life is yours
The way we want to live may not match the way we should live, but there should always be a balance. If you’re living unhappily even if you are making achievements, you are not living a life of yours. Your life is yours, not the society’s and certainly not your parents’. It’s not even other people’s expectations of you; it’s yours! When you’re happy, when you make mistakes and fail, no one pays the price but you, so why would you choose to live for others? Not being happy means that there is absolutely something wrong. You should turn back and look where you lost yourself along the way.
To break the rules or not to break the rules?
If you think about it, you’re not really being asked for suicidal tasks! There are reasons behind these norms and they’re definitely for your own good. Getting good education will help you make your own income and develop as a person who will affect the development of the country as a whole. Also getting married is somehow a must in a religious country like ours where it’s known for a fact that you’re a human who has needs that can only be fulfilled through marriage. There is no need to break the rules; you should only make sure you are following them in the way that suits you and satisfies you. If you deviate from the norms and you’re happy with it while making your parents proud, you’re cool! Never forget that you owe this to your parents after all they’ve done for you.
Our resilience should push us to stand up for what we want regardless of the acceptance of the society. Living right means doing what’s best for your own self while actually adding to your life. Never stop growing or developing yourself; consider the norms as guidelines that you could benefit from. Make sure when you grow old you don’t look back with regrets on things you did not do.
