"Preparing to Live in Morocco" by Rawan Elfar

January 7, 2020: Preparing to move across the world encourages me to remember the places we see as home. What home means to me, and how I will find it in Rabat. By the end of this month, I should be assimilating into my homestay, adapting to Moroccan culture, and immersing myself in my new school. By sketching my journey abroad, I intend to make vanishing frames of my life eternal. 

It is vital to pay attention to every detail and allow my memories to grow stronger in time. Waking up each morning in my new Moroccan home puts into perspective the life I am living and will hopefully humble my character for the better. Seeing what other societies have to wake up to daily and how their culture develops as a reaction to it, encourages different interpretations of structure and agency. For example, the way Morocco implements laws differs tremendously in the United States.

Political opinions underscore the development of culture. Artists lean on music and arts as an escape for individuals to express themselves freely. In Morocco, for instance, it is unlawful to speak out against specific sensitive topics. This codified censorship gives artists a way to voice their concerns in a different way than the West. 

In comparison, America gives us natural-born rights to expression, which allows for organic conversation about politics with multiple existing parties, and the ability for anyone to run to voice disdain against our government publicly. While the First Amendment protects these rights, the US has its ways of censoring information that, in many ways, draws parallels to Morocco. US media network giants of today curate information that is tenable to their political program while minimizing information that deviates in any way from their set political agenda. It is my goal, as an Egyptian American, intertwined between two cultures to ferment both the similarities and differences between each other while learning how to foster the development of a strengthening relationship between the East and West. In essence, a seemingly mammoth task to handle, but the reality is simple communication clarifying misconceptions and similarities while cultivating both respect and interdependence.

I want to learn from my experience through interacting and networking with Moroccan culture while trying to understand as much as possible. I want to become the strongest woman I can be. I mean that in terms of my spiritual, physical, and mental well-being. I am manifesting my destiny. I will be the absolute best I can be. I hope my grades prosper, and in turn, my mind stronger. Inshallah.

Rawan Elfar is a student at American University studying in our Area and Arabic Language Studies Program in Morocco.