hey guys it was my birthday on the 17th and I thought it was kind of cool if I
could share a little bit of a background story on Who I am and how I got here on
the 17th of August 1991 I was born to the best parents in the world and I
was born in Kuwait to five older siblings and I ended up living there
five months so I don't remember anything at all but I like to think that being
born in Kuwait was a sign because Kuwait right now is one of the best interior
design capitals in the world we had to move to Syria for multiple reasons I
don't remember much except having a human-sized hamster wheel in our
playground in the coolest school that I've ever went to I remember wanting an
office and turning one of our library shelves into my very own which everyone
got a kick out of and I do remember my dad traveling to the United Arab Emirates
& getting employed there and I missed him so much but fortunately that
meant I could sleep next to my mom and get super spoiled by everyone so every
thing worked out two and a half years later our entire family would move to
the UAE and we were reunited again I had peace of mind again as a kid and I
remember watching cartoons most of the time while drawing comics and anime
characters not too long later both of my sisters they got engaged and got married
I felt pretty left out my parents observed the situation and they decided
it would be best if they got me to learn something new this is when they brought
me my very first computer it was one of those bulky ones and it was a secondhand
computer but I'm so grateful for them because I did have a lot of time as a
kid and I learned Photoshop and this particular skill stayed with me until
now I loved technology so much and decided that when I would grow older I'd
become a computer engineer I was pretty determined about that during that period
of my life things got interesting now this is something that most of you
people will frown upon but when I was 14 I got into a relationship with one of my
relatives it was an arranged marriage kind of situation and a long-distance
and he was in the States couldn't speak much English myself so he did teach me a
lot of English I guess it was the very first relationship in my life and we did
start out as friends and then things developed romantically
now this happened when I was still in school I graduated and I was going after
what I've always wanted computer engineering as a major however
one week prior to starting my semester I watched a YouTube video it was a dorm
room tour from this girl her name was Cal I think and her handle was Queen
beauty and she was an interior design major student when I saw her room I
could relate so much and everything in my head changed
I saw her sketch books pencils textbooks colors and most importantly I loved
everything on her desk and I realized how better fitting is interior design
for me luckily my parents were super supportive and they were very much
open-minded and the Dean was a cool understanding guy who accepted me
transferring to the architecture interior design College last-minute best
decision I've ever made one year after enrolling I had to stop
my education because I was doing my visa process because I was gonna get married
and I was packing my things to move to the States
however we were both very young and we had a pretty bad breakup
it was on my birthday and it was on 2011 I'm glad I took that year off because
even though I saw my peers and and they were moving forward I actually spent a
year in the gym and I had a pretty great time my dad enrolled me back the next
year where I met one of my best friends and a lot of other people I love so much
I was a straight-a student I've always loved the look on my parents face when I
got a GPA of a 4.0 I'm grateful to have been educated from pretty awesome people
and I was specially grateful to mr. Taher he was the one to push me to do
sustainability summer school where I met my now husband we bonded over the fact
that we both scored a 4.0 that semester I was.. it was awesome but he was kind of
cocky but I still love him anyway that same sustainability summer school
also got me into an all-expenses-paid trip from my university to South Korea
where we would be learning about even more about sustainable team later on me
and Ali we got engaged my husband is ali btw which
was really difficult by the way but that's a very long story for another
time I have graduated and landed my first job that time which was a two
hours drive going in another two hours coming back it was really exhausting and
it was unfulfilled to what I needed so I quit my first job four months later and
right around that time my mother was diagnosed with cancer you know Stage
four it was incurable and she did need surgery so there was a lot of
layers to this story which I guess I'll be making another video about later on
it's a really hard story to tell so there was a lot of hardships during that
time I got another job as a teaching assistant in the same university that
have studied in and I have learned that I love teaching and I did love designing
- one of my closest friends had the idea to start a furniture and accessories
line and she did hire me as a project manager so we did have a blast designing
looking at materials and going into big exhibitions later on I got married and
things were still not good when it came to my mom's health it made us appreciate
her and value her even more than we ever did I stayed at home for three months
and I wasn't employed back then however I did dream about getting hired in
IKEA as interior designer since I was little to be honest me and my best
friend we had we shared that dream and we went and handed out our CVS and three
days later we got a call for an interview and I got hired one month
later now my experience in Ikea was pretty tainted as my personal life
wasn't great at that point of time I remember my first month and I would be
going to my lunch break to see my mom who was in a controlled coma in the
hospital and my mom did get out of the hospital by my dad fractured a bone and
he got admitted to the hospital where he did pass away a couple of months later
you can only imagine how emotional that timing was and I did try my best to keep
up with the stress I had at work IKEA does have a great community but the job
is incredibly stressful in physical mental and emotional ways
my mother passed away a year later from when my dad passed away after a very
long battle with cancer I came back to work completely broken and devastated I
got introduced to my life coach who made me understand how I was feeling and she
helped me get out of my depression and I'm so grateful to have had the chance
to talk to her and I'm grateful to my manager who did introduce her to me I
remember trying to get myself to feel better and devouring a lot of food
because it was the easiest way to cope with so much happening I had to do what
I had to do and I haven't been in this situation ever before so to be honest I
don't judge myself for these kind of decisions either I also coped by
overworking myself my schedule went something like that I would go to work
at 7:30 a.m. go back home at 6 p.m. sleep at 7 p.m. wake up at 2 a.m. and
work on another project in interior design because this was really
fulfilling and it was my happy place I remember getting my car on December last
year and then going on a trip to Paris with my husband but I was still very
miserable because I had to go back to my job and I did realize that so not too
long later I handed out my one month notice after a lot of drama happening
and I resigned from Ikea although I felt really sad to have left amazing
co-workers I had to do it to feel a little bit better this is where I am
right now I'm trying to start my own interior design business and I'm still
beginner at this and at YouTube to be honest but I'm trying to give back to
youtube because have I not watched that video I don't know how my life would
have been different and I'm super glad to be in this position that I'm in right
now no matter what you're passing through in
your life take that experience and embrace it and then try to channel it
towards something better try to start to channel it towards something bigger than
you and you will feel better no matter what it is that you're passing through
and fortunately with all of the hardships
that we go through in life life does go on and we have to move on otherwise
would be just sad creature is setting in our rooms and crying all the time which
is sometimes how I feel but I do let myself feel that way when I need to but
right now I can say that I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing I love doing
YouTube and I love that I'm working as well as an interior designer I don't
know where the future will take me but I am grateful and I'm looking forward for
the future so yeah that was my story I hope you enjoyed it
I hope it wasn't too long for you let me know down below if you need any help if
you have passed through something that changed your life I would love to know
about it if you want to know any part of the story in particular I can make
another video about it I'm not sure that it will relate to my niche but yeah
bring them on I love you guys to the Stars and back
and have a great time of the day wherever you are in the world goodbye