I thought that we would never travel again…






































I had had a bad day at school and came home to “Sof, what do you think about travel?” mum said, trying to look as innocent as possible, although I’ve played that card many times before and knew exactly what she was trying to do . Well, this can’t be good, I thought. “Um, I thought that when we came back from China that I specifically told you that I NEVER wanted to travel again” I said, my panic rising. “I know,” she answered, “but I got this offer to go to Beirut for two to three years, what do you know about Beirut?” Now my heartbreak and anger had taken over, “What do I know about Beirut?! Not much! But what do you care what I think about this! I bet you have already said yes! Or will if you haven’t! You can’t expect me to be okay with this, and that’s a given! I’M NOT DOING THIS, FULL STOP!” As I was about to storm out of the room, she grabbed my wrist, I turned and she looked straight into my eyes, almost a minute later she said “Look, I know that this is hard for you but…” she didn’t get to finish her sentence before I angrily intervened and said to her, trying to control the volume of my voice as much as I possibly could, “NO YOU DON’T! No-you-don’t.” With that I ripped my arm from her grasp and ran to my room. I stayed there for hours crying into my pillow.

The next day, I told my friends the news, trying my best to hold it together. When I finished explaining, they just stood there, staring at me like I had just dropped from outer space with their mouths hanging open, they were dumbfounded. The first one to speak up was Claire, “well, then we’d better enjoy having you here as much as we can before you leave,” as she said it, her voice shook, which was unusual for her because her voice was always so strong and confident, even when she was upset she had the strength about her, she turned to me, “Sofija, we’re going to have as much fun as possible before you move.”

In the months leading up to my departure, I was miserable without my friends, but I enjoyed every minute I spent with them. We had a wicked farewell party and the best of fun other times. The other terrible parts about leaving were that we couldn’t take our dog, Milo, with us, so we had to give him to another caring family, and we weren’t getting him back after we came back. The day we handed him over to one of my friends’ family, I locked myself in my room after the deal was done. We were also leaving our grandma, who would do anything for my brother and I. I had lost everything I ever cared about in a short six months.

After we were all packed, two days after my birthday, the time came, the 8th of January, 2010. In tears I said goodbye to my grandma who I would not see again for two or three years. We boarded the plane and flew off to Beirut, Lebanon, saying goodbye to our home, Australia. We stopped over in Thailand on the way there.

On the 9th of January, 2010, we landed at Beirut airport. I was in tears because I knew that there was now no turning back. I grabbed my luggage and stepped outside. “Woah…” I looked around me and I thought, where are all the gardens? I was in a completely different environment to what I was used to. As far as I could see it was all apartments.

The first few weeks we were here, I was completely miserable, it was because I was so homesick, but also because I didn’t know anyone here, I had no friends…yet. During that time, I was glad to have my brother for company.

We had moved apartments three times since we arrived. Three weeks after our arrival, we started going to school at ACS Beirut, this is where it all got better. On my first day of school I made stacks of friends, the best friends I could have ever asked for.

Now, a whole year later, I am dreading the day we go back to Australia, because now I think that everything I have here is way better than what I had in Australia, to be brutally honest, the only thing I really miss is my grandma, my backyard, and my dog, if I had that as well over here, than it would be above perfect, but no biggy. I love it here, and one of the reasons that I changed my mind was my 13th birthday. I had the best time of my life, and I didn’t want it to end, but sadly I know it will one day. Until that day, my home is Lebanon.