Category: Essays

Introduction

The first thing that may pop into your head when you hear creative writing could be novels, poetry, short stories, journals, or in other words, literature. There is a misunderstanding that keeps haunting creative writing from the day it emerged since many people consider it simple writing with no aforementioned benefits (Ganiaris, 2019). Words are essential to expressing one’s own accumulated thoughts, feelings, experiences, perspectives, and emotions. Therefore, creative writing helps to reach release, psychological relaxation, and cleansing (Adjadj, 2019). It plays a primary role in today’s world since it is considered as one of the most inspirational forms of art. It puts ambiguous notions and complicated perspectives at a free stance with no expected restrictions (Ganiaris, 2019).

What makes creative writing striking and interesting is the fact that you can choose to be whoever you want to be, you can unleash yourself by revealing all the emotions you have inside, and you can even put them in a sense that no one can understand and perceive (Ganiaris, 2019). In school, we used to see writing as a graded material, as a long assignment due to stress that goes together with writing papers, and thus we do not realize the beauty and inspiration that come with creative writing (Ganiaris, 2019). We cannot deny that we, as human beings nature, tend to hide a lot of feelings deep inside and we make them remain unsaid. This is why many people, including authors, incline to creative writing as a tool to release those internal knots with the help of written words (Adjadj, 2019). Creative writing fosters mental health and fully heals the mental illness of people by giving them a huge bunch of inspiration, motivation, and confidence. We can treat it as a good heal for psychological issues. Creative writing or free writing contributes to making people’s mental condition more stable and adequate since it holds many benefits behind it (Adjadj, 2019). It is a noteworthy device for everyone who needs to express his or her emotions and thoughts freely to intensify any internal forces (ibid).

To be more explicit, creative writing allows you to use many methods to take into consideration including symbolism and solecism to make your ideas unclear whenever you want when you are afraid to say the truth in a simple language (Ganiaris, 2019). This allows to come up with many pages as you write because there are no restrictions that may hinder your intellect. Creative writing can mean free writing in other words, highlighting the fact that it permits you to escape reality and shed light on things you want to share with others without being abided by the rules (ibid). It makes your soul serene, and it helps others to get new ideas and drown them in a sea of imagination and an extensive space of getting new experiences inscribed by the authors. When you write, you contribute to encouraging others to write as well, and this goes in around to make creative writing one of the most useful tools to recuperate ourselves in a world full of anxiety and depression (ibid).

It was agreed that creative writing can be used to inspire, encourage, and motivate people. Those who keep writing or what we call authors, help others to get new ideas, and obtain wide information that can be used in everyday life (Ganiaris, 2019). This is why creative writing should be taken on by everyone so that they can share their opinions and release their interests freely and easily (ibid). Moreover, creative writing makes people get rid of all negative emotions inside by writing them on a paper without borders. Meaning that creative writing improves mental health because not everyone has friends who can understand them, so they had better depose of any bad feelings by jotting them down on a paper to end up having many papers of expressive writing (Adjadj, 2019). Studies have shown that nearly 63 unemployed engineers tended to write to see if they are going to get rid of their negative feelings back in1994, and only 53 percent of those who wrote found a full-time job (Adjadj, 2019). This demonstrates how creative writing contributes to being one of the most effective medicines for people’s souls (ibid).

Adding to what has just been said, creative writing remains mysterious or veiled, and that is what makes it so special. “Creative writing is a complex, multifaceted endeavor that can only be adequately apprehended using an interdisciplinary perspective” (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 2). Psychologists have always researched the field of creative writing by asking fascinating questions about creative writers like “how do they write?” (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 19). The paper will argue and go through the psychology of creative writing by revealing the personalities of creative writers and their mood variability and regulation (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009). It will also elucidate the importance and role of creative writing as a medical instrument (Baruch, 2013), as an antidote for physical injuries and trauma (Ansari and Lalani, 2013), and as a primary tool to make the brain work and wake up (Ogden, 2013). This brings me to say that my research will be one of the critical analyses based on some articles, books, websites, and journals.
Key Concepts: Creative Writing – Psychology of Creative Writing – Writing – Psychology – Health Benefits – Creativity – Mood – Stories – Personalities – Antidote.

Literature Review

Creative writing has always been a source of inspiration for those who are in love with writing. Creative arts are associated with those who like creative writing because there are some common personality attributes that writers are known by (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 3). This is based on a Piirto Piiramid of Talent Development that demonstrates the effectiveness that creators achieve when using the force of their personalities (Kaufman and

Kaufman, 2009, p. 3 and 4). There are many different theories of the psychology of creative writing wherein writers are considered to have some genetic personality attributes that can also be found in creators, and of course, in some other people (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 5). The studies that were conducted to exhibit the psychology of creative writing tend to be based on philosophical issues including aesthetics and ethics in which writers search for beauty and truth to intensify human values (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 10). Furthermore, mood plays a major role in the life of creative writers. On one hand, it can either enhance the creativity of writers if it is good or weaken it if it is bad (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 32). On the other hand, studies have shown that writers become more creative when there are in a negative mood as if they can be less creative in a positive mood. You may be impressed while you may think this is kind of controversial, but negative moods can lead writers to higher creative performance (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 2). Writers can shift their mood also according to their results after finishing a creative performance; if they succeed in their work, their mood will be good and positive, but if they fail, their mood will be bad and negative (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 33). Those who show high mood variability are more likely to be creative than those with a stable mood. Therefore, writing improves mood and tends to push it into higher creativity that makes the writers end up having a very good performance (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 2).

However, there are other thoughts regarding the psychology of creative writing that may either support or refute what has just been said before. Creative writing makes the person love writing that once starts to be non-stop. As a result, the brain will be strengthened to remember things very well and will push people to reach high standards of thinking wherein the mind starts to formulate different ideas to write permanently (Adjadj, 2019).

Whereas, we find that creative writing represents a medical instrument for patients wherein the story has a major role in clinical care (Baruch, 2013, p. 1). Healthcare providers should think the same way creative writers do to provide safety to patients, which highlights listening and responding to patients’ stories as emergency physicians who use basic story principles as a therapy for their patients (Baruch, 2013, p. 1). Moreover, there is another notion that underlines the importance of creative writing as a tool to heal physical injuries faster than any other method can (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 1). Many studies were conducted to exhibit that those who suffer from different traumatic experiences can be cured thanks to writing because it allows them to jot down their tense experiences to end up getting rid of any physical and psychological issues (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 1). Ultimately, the brain works mysteriously and wakes up when it is creating a fictional story (Ogden, 2013). If writers want to gain high creativity, their minds need the cooperation of the body to feel, think, and then write creatively (Ogden, 2013).

Critique of the Psychology of Creative Writing and its Importance

Creative writing is associated with those who are in love with the arts in general. It is crucial to mention that creative writers do struggle sometimes to be as creative as they can, and therefore, they have some common personality attributes among them (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 3). Many studies have shown that there are certain personality attributes that creative writers share in common based on a Piirto Piiramid of Talent Development. Among these personality attributes, we find androgyny, curiosity, creativity, imagination, insight, intuition, introversion, overexcitabilities, naivety (openness to experience), motivation (passion for work in a domain), perceptiveness, preference for complexity, persistence, resilience, self-discipline, risk-taking, self-efficacy, volition (will), and tolerance for ambiguity (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 3 and 4). That is being said, talented adults or creators normally achieve success and effectiveness since they possess lots of those personality attributes. Personality, generally speaking, denotes many competing theories that can be either behavioral or cognitive, psychoanalytic, or humanistic (ibid).
I would add that the revised NEO Personality Inventory has come up with five domains that qualify creative writers, and that are extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness. Talking about the domain of openness to experience or “naivety”, we can ratify that it includes some creative attributes like feelings, aesthetics, fantasy, ideas, actions, and values (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 5). Furthermore, the Directory of American Poets and Writers has demonstrated after researching determining which people were most highly effective and the reason behind it, that ambition and envy are very common among writers (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 7 and 8). For instance, T. Coraghessan confirmed he wanted to be a famous writer and a great writer all over the globe. We can tie his statement up with the fact that he writes depending on an incremental passion and extreme discipline to achieve what he wanted to achieve (ibid). This highlights the importance of ambition in writers’ lives to continue writing creatively. A writer can get negative or positive feelings according to how his work is either accepted or rejected to be published, which contributes to enhancing the intense feelings of envy paired with extreme ambition (ibid).

There are many reasons behind being envious of others’ writing. The first reason is that envy can serve to motivate writers to keep up writing with their entire inspiration and creativity, but it can also paralyze underlying the fact that friendships between writers do not last forever because jealousy takes place within their bridges and destroys them (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 9). The second reason is that professors who are well-known and teach at universities, like Poet Jean Valentine, tend to be envious of some of their talented students who can write wonderfully (ibid). The last reason is that pondering about one’s legacy as a writer can be a source of envy among writers, and we find Hemingway as a model for being jealous of his contemporaries (ibid). We cannot deny that many writers rely on the real meaning of life and always search for the beauty and truth by which the purpose of literature has remained a force to uphold human values (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 10).

I think that in creative writing, concern with philosophical issues including aesthetics and ethics is a way to morally explicate human values, for instance, can be shown through dramatic personae in stories and the images and metaphors in poems (ibid). Yeats asserted that the purpose of poetry is to keep humans’ passions alive, and by which he was muddled to determine either the arts make us happy, sensitive, or unhappy (ibid). Talking about the psychopathology of creative writers, the personality tests have demonstrated that writers may be mad or even angrier, and this related to showing their characteristics of schizophrenics and manic-depressives are much lower than their intelligence and ego strength (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 12). Some creative writers tend to be hysterical, depressive, schizoid, or psychopathic, and they appear to be both healthier and sicker psychologically than others (ibid). Depression has a significant role in creative writers’ lives because they try to debilitate it considering it the reason for suicide and persistent pain that completely hampers creativity (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 15). Many writers do believe that the angst and trauma are part of the craft, for example, in Tan’s novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” depression is one of her themes, which gives a sense of excitement to continue writing (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 16). However, we can find that some writers end up suiciding or killing themselves due to depression because they are prone to both self-destructive and self-abusive behavior even as they are contributing to pleasing and cultivating the lives of their readers (ibid). Ultimately, depression represents an intense sensitivity with which creative writers make it both a source of pain and joy to use in their creative performances (ibid).

Creative writers display that they can feel empathy for others’ ordeals; maybe this has to do somehow with the deep depressions that writers undergo. Writers often have feelings towards the rest of the world and want to share them through their writings (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 17). Creative writers can also save others’ lives and struggles by writing using empathy. For instance, Gurganus wrote a novel that is based on the wreckage of the AID’s epidemic to empathize with any sexuality suffering from it (ibid). Creative writers do have a sense could it be off-color humor, sly humor, wry humor, colorful humor, parody, team- written humor, satire, or comedy (ibid). Among those humorist writers, we find Calvin Trillin and Woody Allen who demonstrate that humor is used by writers and that writers can share a true love of humor either verbal and written (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 18).

I would agree with the idea that creative writers exhibit similar personality attributes to other creators in other domains of everyday life, but I also believe that they make strenuous efforts to aspire their readers and that their writings uphold human values most astonishingly, fumbling with a sense of empathy, humor, and creativity as evidenced by Kaufman. Psychologists’ interests to conduct different researches on the psychology of creative writing have been rapidly growing during the last few years (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 3). Creative writers are described somewhat as eccentric creators, however, they are considered to be creative individuals with a trait of openness to experience (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 5). I am assuming that this trait allows them to have the willingness to experience new things and to enrich their imagination and curiosity to some extent. Hence, creative writers’ productivity is associated with their ego strength, resilience, and psychological health, which can be considered both a gift and therapy for them to continue writing productively (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009, p. 10). Meaning that psychological disorders can often advocate creative writers to move from a blank sheet to a well-written masterpiece, and overall, this can depend on the writers’ mood variability and regulation as stated by Kaufman.

Some might argue that when creative writers are in a bad mood, this negative effect will get them to be more creative. Others might assert that being in a bad or negative mood will neither impact writers nor enhance their creativity. But there is another study that expounds on how a positive mood can inhibit creative performances, which might seem to be surprising (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 32). Nevertheless, the study has found that creative writers with a positive mood can lead them to better scores in early idea production, while a negative mood can lead them to better scores in later idea production (ibid). In any case, a negative mood can drive his person to better and higher levels of creative performance. As a contrast, we can find that a good or positive mood also contributes to driving his person into higher levels of creativity (ibid). To give one example, Lynton and Salovey (1997) discovered that students who were in a good mood tended to write better-constructed both fiction and non- fiction stories compared to those who were in a bad mood (ibid). According to Schere (1998), writers demonstrated improved mood after finishing a certain creative work within their domain (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 33). Studies have found that moods were only triggered when they asked some creative writers to remember a sad or happy memory and try to write it (ibid). Yet, people’s moods depend on how they live their lives, on their emotions, and thoughts. And this highlights the fact that creative performance, for example, in organizational employees, has to do with being in a good mood; nevertheless, studies have shown that there was no correlation between creative performance and being in a negative mood (ibid).

Concerning the creative writers’ mood variability and regulation, writers can exhibit high mood variability to be involved in creative writing compared with those with more stable or neutral moods (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 43). As a result, there is a strong relationship between writing and mood since writing helps improve the mood. Positive mood can either impede or facilitate creativity while writing, such as creative problem-solving (ibid). To illustrate, one example of the problem-solving that some individuals were given when researching the mood variability of creative writers was the candle task in which participants were offered “a box of tacks, a candle, and a box of matches and were challenged to attach the candle to a corkboard wall without wax dripping on the floor” (ibid). And this study established that creativity can come together with originality, stimuli, and flexibility for creative writers (ibid). A negative mood can trigger reactions to ban or refute controversial solutions and approaches, but it is central to facilitating problem finding, fostering intrinsic motivation, and prompting creativity (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 45).

I believe that both positive and negative moods may develop creative writers’ performance on problem-solving tasks. Creativity positively impacts writing, and writing has in return a positive effect on writers’ moods (ibid). In a study that was conducted about the benefits of writing, some participants were assigned to write about imaginary traumas, entering college, being laid off, and so on. All revealed that the participants attained mostly decent outcomes compared to those who were assigned first to write just about their traumatic experiences (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 46). The participants’ story must be coherent and to do this they need to structure their thoughts and organize their description (ibid). The act of writing upgraded positive valence and declined arousal; creative writers announced that they felt delighted, happier, satisfied, and elated in one hand, and they felt relaxed, serene, and passionate on the other hand (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2009, p. 50). The writers’ moods can also depend on how satisfied they are with their writing (ibid). Finally, as stated by a participant journalist when conducting a study about the mood variability and regulation in both student journalists and creative writers, “the more I write, the better I write, and the better I feel about myself” (ibid). Therefore, creative writers exhibit self-regulation to set goals and pursue them and this should be in a well-being environment with an improved mood (ibid).

I was thinking about the personality of creative writers and how their mood variability and regulation function within different circumstances after I discussed the ideas of different authors. This led me to ratify that creativity behind creators in general, and creative writers more specifically, is based on a crucial component which is the mind. The mind is part of the brain, and it works in fascinating ways when writing a fictional story (Ogden, 2013). Antonio Damasio elucidated that there should be an existence of the collaboration of the body to both ponder and feel when wanting to write, and he explained that there is an interaction between the brain and the body that is caused by the mind (ibid). Our feelings are generated by our bodies, and therefore, our actions are controlled by our brains (ibid). Neuroscience research has shown that the mind may work creatively and may make the memory stronger for creative writers (ibid). Sue Woolfe, the writer of “The Mystery of the Cleaning Lady,” and as a creative writing teacher, explored the importance of creative writing to wake up one’s brain and make it work mysteriously (ibid). However, Sue approved the fact that her creative thoughts, like other writers prove, are somehow somatic, or in other words, they come from the fingers and not usually from the brain. Moreover, Sue stated that freeing the mind to make it work in its own mysterious way will help people to develop and wake up their minds, and this will also push them to create a meaningful story when it comes to writing (ibid). This is why creative writers have a good brain and a good memory because they have been developing them through writing fictional stories, releasing themselves from “tight constructing” to shift into “loose constructing,” which allows creative writers to enter the psyche of their characters with “somatic markers” that focus them on notions that are blended by both logic and emotions (ibid). Sue concluded that neuroscience had not known yet how the mind works when writing a rich and complex story – knowing that creative writing is one of the best exercises to develop the brains for aging people (ibid).

Creative writing can heal many physical wounds than many other alternative ways can. It serves as a great therapy for patients and different category ages (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 1). A research study was conducted by Elizabeth Broadbent, showed that forty-nine participants between 64 and 97 years old confirmed that creative or expressionistic writing helped them cut and heal many physical injuries (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 2). Statistics have found that 76 percent of people who did follow the writing experiment about creating a story based on trauma, had fully cured of those physical wounds, and about 42 percent of those who wrote without expressing their feelings and emotions had healed after this experiment (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 3). Thus it can be seen that the perspective of “The Ego-State Therapy” has proven that creative acts of writing like fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama are considered to be real opportunities to express our opinion freely, develop our personalities and concepts, and free our mind from the harsh realities of the medical world (ibid). Patients need to have a kind of freedom to be able to recuperate well from their injuries, and therefore, we find that creative or expressionistic writing plays the role of an antidote to heal their wounds and get them over their traumas (ibid).

There is a writing paradigm that shows how patients can get healed once they start jotting down their negative emotions and feelings on a blank paper to serve as a therapy (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 4). Khanna (2010) gave this writing paradigm four stages of creative writing procedure as mentioned by Wallas, including preparation (reviewing with a team), the incubation (developing ideas), illumination (tying ideas up with real-life), and verification (evaluating the work) (ibid). Another approach for healing patients’ wounds in a medical world was suggested by Degraff and Lawrence (2002), who agreed that fostering creative or expressionistic writing comes along with “Creativity Mapping Framework (CMF), which is a verbal map that has four major parts of creativity involving imagination, investment (participation), improvement, and incubating (development) (ibid). We now agree that the writing paradigm is supposed to be a healing antidote for patients’ traumas and physical and psychological injuries by telling them to write on a stressful incident or trauma they have experienced before, ignoring the linguistic structure while they are writing, giving them the choice to write by hand or type on a computer, appeasing them that their writings will be personal and anonymous, and telling them that there will be no feedback so that they can write without restrictions (Ansari and Lalani, 2013, p. 8). This helped them get over their injuries and recuperate well to prove that creative writing is a kind of beneficiary therapy (ibid). Many different health benefits are related to creative and expressionistic writing. To begin with, creative writing helps reduce symptoms of physical discords or wounds or almost heal them (ibid). Second, it contributes to improving the patients’ lung function who are suffering from asthma (ibid). Finally, it reduces the disease in rheumatoid arthritis, and it intensifies and supports the immune system to fight against cancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV infection, chronic pelvic pain, and postoperative injuries (ibid).

From my own experience, I am taking a creative writing class this semester and I can recapitulate it in one single word “wonderful.” I can feel a large difference between last semester and this semester. Last semester I did not feel alright because I had to write essays to get good grades but not to enjoy writing itself. I had psychological injuries and I fell under depression. But this semester where I am taking creative writing, I found that it is healing me and encouraging me to get good grades in all of my courses including this one. It allows me to write freely with no restraints, which helped me to consider it a real therapy to keep up the good work in other courses. Hence, I agree with both Ansari and Lalani who seemed to consider creative or expressionistic writing an antidote for physical injuries and trauma just like I underwent. Creative writing not only heals one’s physical or psychological wounds but also helps improve mental health for people (Adjadj, 2019). The brain must be fortified to remember things very well and to push people to reach high standards of thinking wherein the mind starts to formulate different ideas to write perpetually, and therefore, this will be reached by one of the best ways, which is creative writing (Adjadj, 2019). Creative writing has a strong correlation with the person who writes for himself or herself to cause the brain to wake up (Adjadj, 2019). To illustrate, Julia Cameron in her book, “The Path of the Artist,” tried to write about her mornings to end up having a book consisting of many pages (Adjadj, 2019). Using this technique will help you handle a stable life and start outlining objectives and goals in your life. It will get you out of the global crisis you may be living in very swiftly (Adjadj, 2019). We cannot deny that many of us are used to seeing writing as a test to either ace or fail because we have been taught that. Even if our “inner critic” can sometimes be retreated once we start to write, thinking of writing without stopping and without being afraid of making mistakes will allow you to represent your thoughts originally rather than making them stereotyped (ibid).

Creative writing is a medical instrument that allows healthcare providers to appreciate their characters, meaning their patients, and to help them overcome their obstacles to recover from their illness (Baruch, 2013, p. 10). Writing is part of medicine that should be used in clinical care by listening and responding to patients’ stories because writing fiction can be a clinical skill to apply for healing the patients (Baruch, 2013, p. 1). This is why healthcare providers need to act like creative writers to use stories as antidotes to the reductive nature of clinical decision-making based on empathy (ibid). Healthcare provided should also build communicative space between them and their patients, and they ought to encourage them to develop their voice to defy their tragedy and despair (Baruch, 2013, p. 2). Writing stories in clinical care will create better doctors because writing grants them empathy and inspiration to carry on healing their patients in the most appropriate ways (ibid). As a story has a plot with a conflict to be solved, patients have stress and despair to be overcome by the help of these healthcare provided, mainly aspired from creative writers (Baruch, 2013, p. 4). Furthermore, physicians should treat patients’ stories very well even if they are first drafts to increase their motivation and help them get over their sickness (Baruch, 2013, p. 6). Physicians must accept the many possible conclusions of patients’ stories, and they must not ignore any conflict just as in the story when we provide it with a denouement (Baruch, 2013, p. 10). Ultimately, healthcare providers should think just like creative writers to provide care to patients based on empathy that can be by listening and responding to patients’ stories as a medical therapy and a necessary antidote to save the life of many patients (Baruch, 2013, p. 1).

Conclusion

In a nutshell, I learned that studying creative writing is a fairly fresh and fascinating area of psychological study. Psychologists have started to discover interesting solutions to such questions as who are talented authors? Why should they write? How is it they are writing? What are their difficulties? What benefits will they reap? And how is it that we recognize when a text is creative? (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009). Today, creative writing is a real passion for many writers all over the world. We hope that psychologists continue studying this mysterious field to determine its consequences and advantages for people in their societies (ibid). Creative writing is like a power that takes place in the world because it can change many things when reading the authors’ thoughts, perspectives, and so on. National Novel Writing Month (informally identified as NaNoWriMo) now encourages more than 200,000 eminent authors each year to write a unique novel of more than 50,000 words during November. And statistics have revealed that no less than 2.8 billion words were written during NaNoWriMo in November of 2010 (Forgeard, Kaufman, and Kaufman, 2009). Creative writing is meant to be one of the most important medical humanities that can save the lives of many patients across the world. It is a medical instrument, an antidote for trauma and physical injuries, and a therapy to get over despair, depression, and many other physical and psychological issues (Ansari and Lalani, 2013). We can conclude that creative writing also helps the mind to work in mysterious ways and follow the so-called “loose constructing” when creating complex and rich fictional stories to strengthen imagination and free the mind from any further restrictions (Ogden, 2013). I personally see that creative writing is a vital ingredient in my life. It gives me too much inspiration and comfortableness to see the world in different colors, and therefore, I have started writing a fictional novel that may change my life forever as a creative writer.

References
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Ganiaris, N. (2019, October 15). Creative Writing Is So Important. Retrieved from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/creative-writing-important
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Italy is my child country I lived there for so many years, so decided to travel with my best friends because Italy is one of the most beautiful and peaceful countries in the whole world, it has a lot of beautiful places is I have never seen such a picturesque place as Italy. It has a great history and modern presence in things like its famous art, artist, agricultural presence, and amazing cuisines. It was our first day in Rome; the sky was blue; the weather was pretty warm. Walking down the streets, I noticed a few historical monuments that were very breathtaking, the architecture is very scenic and attractive. My friend and I decided to visit a few that day because we couldn’t just leave without entering. We visited few cities such as Milan and Sardinia and also malls and restaurants.

Our first stop was at the famous The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. As the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the silhouette of the Flavian Amphitheatre is to Rome, the largest structure left to us by Roman antiquity. The inside is a whole different story, it was large enough for theatrical performances, festivals, circuses, or games. We took some amazing pictures to show to our friends. Later on, we chose to visit Vatican City; It is the smallest independent state in the world, with an area of less than half a square kilometer, most of it enclosed by the Vatican walls. Inside are the Vatican palace and gardens. It offers a lot of things to see, between its museums and the great basilica itself. The unquestioned highlight of the Vatican museums is the Sistine Chapel, whose magnificent, the frescoed ceiling is Michelangelo’s most famous work.

The day after, as the weather was so hot, we went to Sardinia. Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Sardinia is a mainly mountainous region, without high peaks, with a vast and charming, yet bittersweet, natural environment. It is famous for the clear and pristine waters, awarded time after time, and for the variety of its coasts. We first went to swim in a beach called Su Giudeu; one of the most beautiful beaches of Chia in the south of Sardinia. Long, clear sand and blue intense waters. Surrounded by dunes up to 20 meters high we had a beautiful time there and we get to know a lot of great people there, they was so nice and funny. Furthermore, we went to a restaurant on the beach side to have dinner, the view there was panoramic. I had a delicious, cheesy and handmade pasta, it was the best pasta so far, I’ve ever had in my life. My friend had the famous crispy pepperoni Italian pizza. We have had an unforgettable day in Sardinia.

The last day in Italy was the most beautiful one. I decided me and my friends to visit all the educational places in the Milan city, because we wanted to finish our studies in this beautiful country, we visited the university of Bocconi it’s one of the best universities in the world it offer the best programs, and they have a huge campus which we can all rent an apartment together. After that we had lunch in a place that offer the Indian food, also we loved to food it was delicious and we learned a lot about the Indian culture, in this country there are a lot of places with different cultures you feel like you visited already a lot of countries, also there are a lot of activities you can do, not only  spending the day outside but you learn a lot. In the evening we went to the mall to buy some clothes and some gifts to our family and friends we had so much fun there, then we went to have dinner in a restaurant, and went to a club to have fun in our last day in the city. It was a beautiful day in Milan.

To sum up, After the few days we spent in Italy, all I can say is that it is one of the most gorgeous, charming countries in the world, you can have fun wherever you go and people there they are so nice and make you fell like it’s you home and you are welcome whenever you want and wherever you go . The cuisine, the architecture, the historical monuments, the countryside and the beaches are all breathtaking and worth the visit.

As a Mauritanian girl, gender stereotype is something I face in my daily life. I grew up in a community where women can’t have big dreams. Their role is simply to have kids, take care of them, and support men: fathers, brothers, husbands and sons. Unfortunately, these old-fashioned ideas are stopping most girls from achieving their goals and having an impact on the society. In most households, girls’ education is not a priority which makes child marriage common in certain areas. I was aware of this phenomenon, but it wasn’t affecting me in any direct way or so I thought.  

During last year’s summer vacation, I traveled to my home country Mauritania. To be more specific, I was in the capital Nouakchott. It was all fun and games, until that evening when all my dreams shattered. At 8pm on July 18, 2019, my mother wanted to talk with me about ‘‘a very important matter’’, as she described it. She took me to my room and closed the door on us. Then, without any introductions, she got straight to the point. She told me that a relative of mine asked for my hand, and they accepted his proposal.  

A part of me wanted it to be a joke, but I knew that my mother wouldn’t bring up such a topic if it wasn’t serious. I was going through a mixture of feelings: I was sad, scared and disappointed which left me speechless. So, I asked her kindly to leave me alone in the room in order to process the idea. I couldn’t cry because I knew it wouldn’t change anything. My thoughts at that moment were very negative. I thought that I would never achieve my dreams, I would never get my baccalaureate, I would never finish my postgraduate studies, and I would never get my dream job nor be able to travel the world.  

This was a crucial moment for me, and I needed someone to share it with. Usually, I prefer talking with my mother about these types of things. However, given that she was the one who delivered the news, I couldn’t open up to her. Thus, I decided to tell my best friend about how this step is going to ruin my life and ask for her suggestions. She was really supporting the idea as she asked me to see things from a  

positive point of view. She said that this is destiny and that couples are made in heaven. She convinced me that before judging the man, I should at least meet him once. Since I wanted to make my family and friends happy, I decided to meet the guy. That decision was my first mistake and I solely did it because these people mean the world to me.  

The moment I met him, I fell in his trap because he was such a sweet talker. As any other girl, I wanted to be loved. He showed me that no one else could love me more than him, thus, I thought that we were meant to be together. After that arranged date, I really started liking him, especially when he promised and reassured me that nothing will interrupt my studies. We decided to give our relationship a chance and to get to know each other more. After a month of engagement, we got married, and that was the worst decision of my life.  

Our marriage was sweet in the beginning and got bitter day after day. The immediate consequence of my foolish decision was the heavy responsibility I took on my shoulders at a young age; being a housewife and a student at the same time. He and his family were expecting certain things from me and my school needed other things from me. I couldn’t maintain a good balance between these two separate lives of mine. The fact that my studies were my first priority created a lot of problems for them. Those disputes went from minor misunderstandings to big problems in a month. Then, as expected, the story ended with a divorce and an unwanted pregnancy.  

When I got all this news at the same time, I was really heartbroken, and I couldn’t hold my tears back. I cried for nights not only because of the bad and mean things people were saying about my one-month marriage, but also because I wasn’t ready for giving birth nor raising a child. At that time, most people weren’t that supportive except my close family members and friends. They gave me the hope, courage, and motivation needed to start a new chapter of my life. They also told me that this is not the end of the world and that I still have a bright future ahead of me. They were right. I decided to focus more on my studies and I got my baccalaureate diploma with the highest average in my class.  

Looking back, I understand the situation differently. My parents’ reaction then was expected and understandable because they are members of a bigger community that follows traditions and considers them above everything. However, it wasn’t  

completely their fault. My actions at that time show clearly how childish and immature I was. Now, I feel sad about the precious month of my life that I spent investing my time and effort in a worthless relationship. I think of this experience as both the biggest mistake of my life and the best thing that has ever happened to me, because it has given me the most beautiful gift, Jemal, my son. It was a very bad experience, but it taught me lifelong lessons. One of them is examining all the possible consequences of any decision before taking it. Therefore, if the same event occurred today, I would most certainly respond to it differently. For instance, If I am proposed to again, I would probably take more time to get to know the other person. Then, I would ask him to wait until I secure my future; finish my studies and get my dream job.  

To summarize, life is about making mistakes and learning from them. I made mine and it changed my personality. It was as well an opportunity for personal growth. Now, I see myself as a strong and independent woman. At the end of the day, I accept all my decisions, whether they turn out to be good or bad. In both cases, I am always learning. At the moment, I feel proud of myself as a teen single mother and a college student. I also feel happy that I never gave up on myself or on my child.  

My story begins shortly after I turned 18. A fresh highschool graduate with aspirations bigger than I could ever afford, literally. Being born in a small city in the mountains didn’t really set me up for success either. Chefchaouen is a city where girls grow up to get the minimum required education then devote the rest of her life to preparing to fulfill her duty as a wife and mother. Perhaps things would have been different if the men in Chefchaouen didn’t spend their time on the streets whistling to every passing female. Or maybe if these girls had enough support and love in their lives they would actually seek something else. All I knew at the time was that I wanted to go as far away as possible from their mentality. I was a stellar student through out highschool. My orientation towards scientific subjects created the illusion that I was the brightest among my sisters. Enrolling in Al Akhawayn was only dad’s step forward to finally having an engineer in the family. My father represents everything I aspire be in life. He taught me forgiveness, sacrifive, humility, generosity and how to believe in myself in light of the social and cultural limitations. He pushedme to ask questions, and seek answers. I remember when I first told him I wanted to learn guitar, and he came back home later the same night with a black acoustic Yamaha and aproud smirk on his face. Now, that hopeful kid with a guitar is nothing but a financial burden with nothing to offer the world. Between me and my sister, the tuition fees cost him more than an average Moroccan would spend in a lifetime, and despite dad’s constant reassurance that everything is fine, I knew had to finish college as soon as possible yet I did the complete opposite. Approximately one year after starting college, I realized engineering wasn’t at all for me. I had to go to class to learn about equations to calculate water flux through a pipe. I was working on theories and numbers that are no way related to my real life. The thought of being an engineer and sitting in a cubical all day made me want to exit my body. I had to live out my dad’s dream for me in the company of very unhygenic people who refused to share so much as their notes. By the end of my sophomore year, I had managed to fail all my classes and fall into probation. At the time, my temper problems got to their peek and I managed to push everyone away including my sister and only companion in the university. I started doubting myself and whether or not I was worth everything my dad had already sacrifice. I isolated myself so much I rarely even saw my parents on the weekends. It took incredible strength to drag myself out of bed every morning and more often than not, I never saw daylight. Whatever disappointment my parents felt about me couldn’t compare to the resentement I felt for myself. 

The school « counseling » surely didn’t help for the few weeks I tried it. The counsellor had one of the quietest offices I had ever been to. It was a small, eggshell yellow room with no windows at all ; like a prison. I always thought it was strange how a place that’s meant for comfort could easily have the opposite effect. Her desk always had files packed neatly on it along with a picture of her with what I assumed was her daughter. She must have been in her late thirties or early forties judging by the faint wrinkles forming at the edges of her eyes. She had blond hair and a soft soothing voice that created the illusion of trust. I had to see her at least twice a week and simply document my progress on becoming a happier person, something I didn’t even know how to be. So, I lied. I told her I was getting better, that I was making more efforts to attend my classes and that existing was no longer so difficult thanks to her strategical planning. I was just grateful I didn’t have to pay extra for it. 

The following Spring semester was the drawback for me. After having failed one too many courses, the administration decided it was  time for a change. I was given a semester off with possibility of re-enrollement. So, in other words, I had to tell my parents the university kicked me off because of my poor performance after several warnings. Reading the email from enrollment sent shivers through my spine. I managed to hide everything so far, but now I had to face my father with the truth. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me but I knew I wasn’t that lucky. 

When I walked into my father’s office that Friday afternoon, I finally understood the meaning of the word surreal. Nothing seemed concrete in that small space. It was overflowing with books from both sides with pictures of me and my sisters as kids at every corner. My dad was sitting at his desk in the center of the room confused at the sight of me. My eyes were puffy and my face almost unrecognizable without makeup. 

“What are you doing here ?” he said clearing his throat 

I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out. All I kept thinking about was how old he looked under the lighting in that room. His wide brown eyes have started to shrink and I can barely spot any dark hairs anymore. I held his gaze for what felt like an eternity then words finally came to my rescue. 

“It’s school. I was kicked out for failing and I now I failed you and myself.” I tried so hard to resist my temper but all I knew how to do at moments like this was to  blame others for my mistakes. “This is all your fault ! Pushing me to become an engineer against my will.” My throat clenched and I fought to hold my tears and stand my ground until there was no fight left in me. 

“Are they gonna take you back ?” he said failing to hide his sadness 

“Yes,” I murmured turning to look at the floor. I was ashamed of the look in his eye. “I’m so sorry I failed you,” I added sniffling loudly. 

He opened his first drawer and handed me his beige handkerchief 

“I never thought I was pressuring you to do something you don’t like.” He rested both his hands on the desk and looked at them as if to really think his words through, then continued, “If you don’t like engineering you can do something else. All I wanted was that you excel in whatever you do.” 

“But you spent a lot of money,” I said,  trying to provoke something different than sympathy. 

“As long as I’m alive you will never need anyone else. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall. What matters is how many times you get up.” 

His words hang in the air above me as I struggled to stop crying. It was always hard for me to apologize and I think he knew that. The look on his face was endearing. He did a better job at comforting me than any counselor could have ever done. I could sit across from him forever. Quickly enough, he turned the conversation into humor mocking how I try to talk and cry at the same time. His imperssonation of a crying baby immediately made me laugh and somehow life was good again. 

My father’s support was the ray of hope I desperately needed to survive. I was thankful for the his peaceful approach of things, for the hopeful beginning of a new career plan and most of all for not having told my mother first. There are times in life where you feel like your life stops and it destroys you so much you forget that the world just goes on in parallel. I had to learn the hard way that your well being lies in how much you invest in yourself and your family. In how many times you failed but you didn’t let it define you. In the difficult sacrifices you make. In the mornings you wake up excited to go to class because you’re actually passionate about the lecture. I finally have that now and all I can say is that it would have never happened without my failures. 

After thousands of years, people are getting their last chance to exist on earth. None can get outside their houses without wearing bottles of oxygen. All the houses have become equipped with an oxygen system, so no one is able to open the windows because no more fresh oxygen is out there to breathe. Greedy humans destroyed the earth many years ago because of their silly political and economic affairs and interests.
The world has changed a lot. All the organisms including plants, trees, animals, and most human beings became extinct. At night and with a yellow dim light, there is a random small house that is isolated. You might think, at the first look, it is the only house that is left on earth. In fact, it is one of the few houses that are left, and each one of them is in a different place. It is not only life that disappeared from earth but also human beings.
There is a small family that includes a husband, a wife called Sicilia, and their son who is called Leo. Leo and his parents have never seen the green gardens or people without oxygen bottles around their heads. He is a curious boy, always wants to know more, and read more. He is also seeking knowledge and never gets enough. In fact, he is a scientifically oriented person who questioned a lot about everything around him and about the universe.
One night, while Leo is lying on his bed, and his mom is sitting next to him.
“So, babe it’s enough talking tonight. You should have some sleep!” Sicilia said.
“But mom I want to hear more about how the world was better…” Leo said.
Sicilia answered, “No matter what I told you, and what I will tell you about the past earth, you will never imagine exactly what blesses the old generation used to have.”
“Was really electricity available in every house all the time with free use instead of using those candles?” Leo asked.
Sicilia explained, “Yes, this was a normal part of their lives, and they have never thought that someday they will lose it!”
Candles are turned off in that small room after the son falls asleep. None can offer anymore a big house because it means more amount of oxygen that should be distributed through it. Only a few people could save themselves after this environmental change that happened to the earth. In other words, just the rich people who could offer oxygen to survive. It seems like the hierarchy of social classes practices discrimination even on the human being distinction. In addition, all the big pharma, technology, and social media businesses disappeared. However, new businesses were born based on oxygen and water supply since they are the most needed ingredients by humans to survive.
Earth became a scary and dark place for humans. No one can expect what is coming and what the next day will be bringing. The movements of nature are not expected anymore, such as the weather that became extremely hot in summer and very cold in the winter breaking the highest and the lowest records humans ever experienced. Human beings were always showing off their technological and intellectual development, but now humans are experiencing the highest level ever of uncertainty during their history. Climate change was obvious in front of them, and it was a sign for them to do something and to act as soon as possible about it. However, they were blinded by politics and economics. In fact, the earth was screaming without being heard by arrogant humans.
The earth of today does not include more than one government, and few people who are left on its surface. Most of these people are unemployed, and they are living on the food that is distributed by the government. Many people wait for food in their small houses every morning.
As every morning, Leo wakes up and sees from the window a foggy atmosphere that cannot let anyone see anything. Suddenly, his mother comes into the room “Good morning! Finally, you woke up,” said Sicilia in a tonality that looks like she was checking on him many times before he woke up.
“Good morning mom!” Leo answered.
“Let’s get up and have your breakfast,” Sicilia said.
Sicilia added with a knowing smile, “And learn something!”
Sicilia brings some food pills as the new and the only form of food left on earth and distributed by the government. People have started eating these food pills since the soil is not suitable for cultivation and oxygen does not exist anymore.
While Leo was having food pills, he asked, “is it true that int the to learn, children were going to special buildings called schools and were taught by knowledgeable people called professors? And all the children were gathering and learning together?”
“Yes, children used to go to schools in the morning and be taught by people called teachers and professors. By the end of every year, every student whether they pass and move on to a higher level or fail the year and repeat it. This educational system was used to be described as a system full of flaws because it was based on grades, which kills children’s creativity,” Sicilia explained.
While Sicilia was describing schools, Elio started imagining how the schools were in the past while a large smile was written on his face! His mom, suddenly, raised her voice like she was trying to wake him up from his dream to the horrible reality.
Sicilia said, “Today, we are going to study the types of animals that were existing on earth.”
She was turning the book’s pages that included pictures of animals, and her son was looking at them while he was surprised by the shape and the diversity of these creatures that were destroyed.
The son pointed a picture on the book and his eyes were full of childish curiosity. Elio said,” Mom, what is this animal with this long neck and yellow fur?”
“This is a giraffe that was used to be in Africa. It is the tallest animal in the animal kingdom with the longest neck and legs. I am sure you would like it if it were still existed,” Sicilia explained.
Once his mother was done with her explanation, He turned his eyes down with a deep sadness. His mother held his head with her hands taking it up and said, “look at me my son! Why are you sad? “
“I feel like we are a bad species. We have just destroyed everything. We have destroyed everything good on this earth because of our greedy attitudes. I have once read that we even had enough oxygen, water, and food, even so we created many wars that caused millions of people to die,” Elio said. He was about to shed a tear.
Sicilia answered, “enough babe. All that you have mentioned is true, and humans were evil and reckless. They didn’t think about you, and your right to live on healthy and safe earth as they did, but It was their fault, not yours!”
“Why should we experience this and pay the cost of them being reckless by our right to live in a healthy earth?” Elio answered aggressively.
“Do you want me to tell you a secret?” Sicilia said with opened eyes. She was trying to calm him down.
Leo said with a faint voice, and his shoulders went down like he gave up, “Yes!”
“I am just like you. I have never lived on that wonderful earth that the old generation had the chance to live on. I had the same questions you asked. I felt oppressed too, but I got up. You know! I always believe that we can travel through this sea that is around us. I mean in this large universe. I believe that we can find another planet that looks like the earth or even better,” Sicilia answered.
Leo with opened eyes asked, “But mom, how can we do that?”
“Let me tell you something. There is an incredibly old astronomy institution that was created in 1958!” Sicilia said.
Leo interrupted his mom and commented, “that’s very old one, mom!”
“Yes, and it is still working until now. They organize a competition every year to choose the best dreamer to participate in the journey to find solutions for saving the life of the human species. It is your chance, my son, to save yourself from wasting your life in this small house, and why not saving all the other people,” Sicilia explained.
Leo answered, “do you think I can make it?”
Sicilia raised her head up with a wise smile, and she answered: “you should find the answer within yourself!”
A moment of silence came after this conversation while eye contact between Sicilia and her son was happening. Afterward, the father got inside the house and started removing the oxygen bottle from his head.
The father questioned that silence he found, “Hi! What is happening there?”
Leo told his father everything about what Sicilia told him with great enthusiasm!
“I think we should spend time together tonight. Are you free?” Liam said.
Leo jumps from his place and hugs his dad strongly with obvious happiness. Children do not usually have the chance to see the outside world every day. Life has changed a lot in the new earth’s conditions and being outside every minute costs money to get oxygen.
At night, the father helped his son to wear the oxygen bottle and took his son’s hands to the outside. They walked through a poor brown land that used to be green with gardens and trees. They kept walking until they got to some big stones that used to be deep in a lack that disappeared years ago.
While they were sitting on these stones, Leo looked up and said, “I have never seen the sky as clear as tonight!”
“The night is the only moment during the day when we can see the little beauty that is left. All the destruction disappears inside the night’s darkness, except, hope that cannot be hidden because it is a light, and the light stronger than the darkness” Liam said while looking at the stars.
“There are too many stars out there!,” Elio said while looking at the stars with opened eyes.
“They are not just stars that decorate the sky every night, anymore. In fact, they have become our only hope that we still can look at it in this dark and scary universe,” Liam explained.
Leo was listening with deep thinking and said, “I am wondering how many lives are out there!”
“Why don’t you go and check by yourself,” Liam said sarcastically.
“Can I really, but how?” Elio asked.
“I believe you know, or you pretend that you don’t know!” Liam said while he was petting Leo!
“Look at me, my son! Confusion, stress, overthinking, and fear will not take you anywhere. They will not even take you back home. However, dreams, goals, self-confidence, desire, enthusiasm, and work are the things that might make you have a path in your life. They can make you a path even through these distant stars. They can make you what you have never thought you will be able even to touch…” Liam added.
A long silence followed this father’s speech during their whole journey back home. Leo was drowning in a deep process of thinking about what path to take in his life. This process of thinking has accompanied Leo during the whole night. He has even dreamt about it. Once the morning came with its thick fog, the son had already made his clear decision to be the one for his family. He has jumped from his bed and has gone to his mom screaming saying, “I am going to be the dreamer who is going to be selected by NASA this year!”
Sicilia reacted like she was expecting this decision, and she answered, “Congratulation my son! This is your first step towards your goal. I heard that the competition includes random questions about astronomy, biology, math, physics, and philosophy, but their questions focus on how far your imagination about the universe can reach. Therefore, we should work hard on your knowledge in the coming years. In addition, we should read together as many books as possible, so you can expand your knowing and imagination.”
Leo started learning with the help of his mom preparing for the big day. After a few years, Leo became ready to go to the competition because he believed that he accumulated enough knowledge to win it.
The father went to NASA location to do the registration for his son for the competition. Only a few days are left before the competition starts, and Leo is very ready to start the journey and be the one who is going to be selected as the best dreamer.
The day of the competition came, and the son was there on time. He was waiting for them to call his name, so he could stand in front of several knowledgeable people who would examine his knowledge.
They called him, afterward, to be questioned while his parents were waiting outside hoping that everything went well. The meeting took no more than 20minutes. During this period, the father was holding his wife’s hands that were full of sweat. Of course, they gave all their energy to help their son, and they wanted to see the result of their arduous work. Suddenly, the son gets out of the exam room, and the happiness is clear on his face. Once he got to his parents, his mom came to him in quick steps, then she gave him a hug like she had not seen him for years. She then started asking him about the meeting.
“How was it? Tell me, did everything go well?” Sicilia asked.
with a noticeable self-confidence, he answered, “I believe I was convincing to them!”
“I trust your abilities my son. I know you are going to make it,” Sicilia said.
The son got hugs as well from his dad after Sicilia fulfilled her noticeable curiosity about her son’s meeting. The family went back home together hoping the good news to be announced in the coming few days. In fact, Nasa does not determine a specific day when the results of the competition should be visible because they tend to not put pressure on the ones who are taking charge of choosing the best dreamers. They want them to be comfortable in selecting the participant to choose the best student who is suitable for the criteria of NASA project.
Finally, after days of waiting that were like years for the son and his family, results were assigned. People should go to NASA location to see the result because no more internet or any other manifestation of technology is available to the public. Therefore, Liam went to the NASA institution to get the result of his son. “Your son failed to be selected,” was the answer of NASA to the father. Once the father heard the result, he just wanted to sit down, and what he only was thinking about is how to inform his son about this sad news. The father really knows the importance of this chance for his son. It is more than a competition. It has become a principle in his life.
Leo and Sicilia were waiting with abnormal confidence and a state of comfort like they had already got the result. Liam got home with a fireball that was burning his heart. He just wanted to get rid of it without burning his lovers, but he needed to throw it anyway.
Liam said, “God has better plans for you son!”
A killer silence was following this tragic announcement. Neither the father nor the mother was able to say even a word to console their son because they are aware of how meaningless words are in this situation. In fact, how can they console someone, and themselves cannot stand it.
Leo spent the whole night thinking only about the announcement of his father. Late at night, the son was able to wear his oxygen bottle and sneak out of the house while his parents were sleeping. He tried to walk away from home until he got to a cliff. The only thing that was clear and harmonic in front of him was the sky with its stars. Everything around him was dry. The voice of his dad announcing the sad news keeps being repeated in his head “God has better plans for you.”
While he was looking at the sky, he asked himself, “Does God exist beyond these distant stars? If God exists, why didn’t he save us from this dark universe? Why didn’t he make me win the competition? He knows I worked hard to be selected! Why God wants us even to go through all these? Why did he Create all this universe? Is it only for worshiping? Then, what is the point? What worshiping can add to him as a God?”
After these innocent questions about existence, he surprisingly felt something different through his heart. It was like a new hope was born inside him that night. He just felt that nothing can stop him from his dreams if he really wants to achieve them. He is a new person who can see the full part of the glass instead of the empty one. He realized that this failure is a chance for him to have more time to mature enough and to learn more. Finally, He went back home, and once he got in the house, he tried to enter his room without making any noise that might wake up his parents.
Once the son woke up the next morning, he ran towards his mom to tell her about the new hope that was born last night. She was incredibly happy to hear that, and she also got back hope for the future. Therefore, they started preparing again for the coming competition. While they were preparing, the son realized that he knows a lot of knowledge and he just needs to add more. In other words, he concluded that when we try and we fail, we think that we have lost everything. In fact, we would have really lost everything if we did not try again because when we try repeatedly, we never start from zero. There is always what is called an experience, and all that is needed is to be smart to avoid making the same mistakes that lead us to fail in previous attempts.
Leo doubled his efforts during the period that is left before the competition. He believed in his goal more than any time before, and he worked hard as hell for his dream with the help of his parents. The competition time came, and the son passed the competition for the second time. Liam went again to NASA’s location to get the result. The family was sitting waiting at home stressed and did not know what was going to be the result. However, Leo deeply believed that he might fail, but he was planning to try again.
Liam got home and opened the door with a frozen face. He just sat next to his family without saying a word. The mother and his son were looking at him with fully opened eyes waiting for him to save them from the sea of doubt and stress that they were drowning in. Finally, the father said something, and he was keeping that frozen face.
“God has better plans for you!” Liam said, and he stopped talking.
While everyone is silent and just looking at each other unable to react, the father said, “God has better plans for you with NASA.” Surprisingly, the son jumped inside his father’s bosom, and his mom also joined to hug her son from the back. Sicilia kept saying in her son’s ears in a soft voice, “You did it my son! You did it my son! You did it my son…”
The son was ready the next morning to go to NASA to start his training. His mom was excited and confused about what he should wear and take with him for his long journey. This training is known that students go to it, and they do not come back home only once every year. While his mom was trying to find clothes that are suitable for her son to take through the chaos she created when she was looking, she said, “I think you should take the red coat, but it is so thick, but what if you felt cold. I think you should just take it with you!”
Leo looked afraid and stressed. He answered, “Mom! I think I am late! I should go!”
Liam got in the house, and he said, “Let’s go! it’s time!”
As a desperate attempt to make her son stay long, Sicilia said, “What about the breakfast!”
“I am sorry, mom, but no time is left. I should go!” Leo answered.
Liam, “Where is your bag?”
Sicilia, “It is in his room!”
While the father went to bring the bag, the mother started kissing her son while her eyes were full of tears.
Sicilia said, “Take care of yourself, Leo!”
The father brought the bag and while walking to the door, he said, “Let’s go son!”
Sicilia went with them to the door while holding her son’s hands. Once they got to the door, she gave a long hug to her son while crying smoothly that was barely heard.
The son got to the training station where he said goodbye to his father through a long hug. The son gets into the NASA building and specifically to the main area where he found a big banner that says, “For newcomers, they should go first to the residential area (with an arrow pointing to the direction.” The son went in that direction where he had to look for his name on the rooms’ doors. By the evening, the son was done with finding the room, meeting his roommate, and having a small tour around the NASA departments. He felt freer because NASA was a huge, big institution that was equipped with oxygen, so he did not need to wear the oxygen bottle all the time.
The next day was the first day of classes, and Leo woke up with enormous excitement because he had never been taught in a classroom by a professor. He went to an auditorium that was big and holds many chairs, but just a few students were there because as the professor kept saying, “We are accommodating here only the best students left on the earth who are dreamers, matures, creative, knowledgeable, and brave enough to sacrifice themselves to save the human species.”
The son spent more than two years studying a variety of classes about physics, math, astronomy, and philosophy. He goes back home once every year. In fact, he has not yet known the point behind all those years of studies because NASA was not sharing its projects with its students. However, NASA professors kept saying that only a group of the current students will be selected based on their academic and psychological standards to know and to participate in the coming NASA project. For other students who will not be selected, they will work at NASA as scientists.
The period of studies was not determined for a specific period. In other words, students do not know how many years they should study, instead, NASA professors are the ones who are responsible for selecting students who are ready to go to the next level. In the fourth year, Leo had to take an exam that was called the final exam. The name does not make any sense because taking this exam does not mean you have finished your studies. It is just a name, but if you did not do well there is a probability of being kicked out.
After the son took the exam, he went out of the exam room immediately because he felt like he did not do well. After two days of stress and fear, the results were announced, and he failed that final exam as expected. Afterward, the son was invited for a meeting with the NASA administration, and he thought that the meeting d be about excluding him from the training.
The meeting was planned to be in an auditorium which was weird for Leo because how comes an excluding meeting to be in an auditorium. Afterword, Leo went to that location, and he found five other students in the auditorium, and he thought that he had come to the wrong location. He checked the number of the auditorium, and he found that it is the right one. He tried to sit next to one of those five students.
“Have you failed the final exam, too?” Leo asked the student who was sitting next to him.
The student was surprised and answered: “No I got the highest grade!”
The son was shocked, and he started thinking that he got the wrong invitation. He thought that he should not be there, so he must leave, but he decided to stay to see what was going to happen.
Suddenly, four professors entered the auditorium, and all of them were wearing suits. Each one of them was holding papers, and their faces showed weird seriousness that made Leo afraid about what was coming to be announced. The four professors stood up in front of the six students.
One of the professors said, “Hello everyone, this meeting is organized after the final exam. Which made some of you think that they are here to be honored, some of you think that they are here to be excluded because they did very badly in the exam, and some of you do not even know why they are here because they consider themselves as the average students. What is tricky about this is even if we have picked the best students, we still have this hierarchy of good, middle, and bad students academically which proves that we will never reach that perfection matching between humans. In fact, people will never be the same even in the smallest part of the human behaviors.”
The second professor said, “Some of you were passing their classes even if they did not get the passing grades. Although they did bad, they are still here studying as nothing happened. Do you know why? because we have never cared about your grades, instead, we have cared about your attitude, reactions, and behaviors in different NASA facilities. NASA was looking for volunteers not for designing a project because the project already existed. In fact, we are looking for people who are able psychologically to run the project through the journey.”
The third professor said, “All of you were under the watch of a lot of advanced NASA cameras that is activated in every facility you were using including your rooms. Cameras that are not only watching your behaviors, but they are able to analyze your psychology during the whole period all of you spent here. After analyzing all the data offered by our cameras, we have selected you to be a part of the journey. Congratulation!”
Students did not know how to react because they were shocked because they were watched even in their privacy. However, at the same time, they are the only ones who were selected for the journey. Finally, after a few minutes of confusion, Students chose to be happy and to celebrate this achievement.
The fourth professor interrupts this happiness and said, “You have a break of one day that you are allowed to spend it with your families. In fact, this one day is given to you to say goodbye to all your lovers because after this break the journey is going to start. We don’t have much more time the earth is dying, and everything can disappear any time without saving the human species!”
Students have never felt responsible for something in their lives as now. Leo felt a bit of fear, but a lot of energy and an ardent desire to be the hero. The sex students left NASA back home. Leo told his parents about everything which made them feel the same as their son felt when he was informed for the first time. The mother was showing happiness in front of her son, but there is a state of grief inside her heart. In fact, the parents knew that they might never see their son again even if the son did not mention that part of the story. The break was spent while every one of them was acting as nothing happened and everything is going to be fine, and at the same time, every one of them is experiencing deep sadness.
Once the sex students got back to NASA, they were taken to a big building that was separated from NASA location. This building included huge laboratories and many old scientists who were wearing white overalls and glasses. Their attitudes and way of talking reveal that they are deeply knowledgeable people. Leo started being afraid, but at the same time started having many questions.
One of those old scientists said, “Follow me!”
Students followed him to big laboratory where a black big spaceship was at the center of it.
The scientist said, “As you know, you are here to be a part of the journey that is going to save the human species if everything went as expected. I do not know if you heard about the multi universes theory or parallel universes theory. It is a theory that is based on an idea that says that there are many universes that exist at the same time. To be able to imagine how many universes might be, imagine that whenever you are confused between wearing the yellow or the red T-shirt two universes are created. In one of them, you would choose the red one, and in the other one, you would choose the yellow one. It seems like a magical idea, but it is our only hope to find another planet that is suitable for life. Since even if we can travel at speed light to find another planet in the other galaxies, we need 25000 light years to only get outside our galaxy.”
Leo, surprisingly, asked, “But, it seems like the other universes are in a different dimension, so how can we move to the other universes?”
The scientist said, “The only feasible way we have got to know, so far, to get to the other universes is the wormhole which is like a tunnel that has two holes. One of them is above the other one. This wormhole links two places that are at disparate points in spacetime. According to our calculations, if you leave point A that is in our universe through a wormhole, you will end up in the same point but in the other universe. In fact, we do not know which universe the wormhole is going to take you to since we do not know how many universes exist and those wormholes are still unknown to us. However, our hope is that the wormhole will take you to a universe where people did not make a choice like ours about the earth, but, instead, they chose to protect their planet.”
Students’ brains could not process what the scientist was talking about because it looked like for them a Harry Potter world. It was weird for them to think that there are many versions of each one of them in different universes. Among this climate of doubt and uncertainty, one of the students said, “What is the probability that this journey might fail?”
The scientist, “99% of chances that none of you will come back. Any big or small mistake will cause us to lose all of you nowhere! However, as this is a project of more than two centuries. We had many pieces of research and experiences, so every step is carefully studied. This might be helpful for your psychology, but this changes nothing about the 99% probability. “
with a faint voice that was barely heard because of the shocking probability that is mentioned, one of the students asked, “how much time do we need to get to this wormhole?”
The scientist said, “What you should understand is that the concept of the wormhole is just a name of the process and the shape of that tunnel I have explained before. Therefore, we believe that the black hole has the characteristics of the wormhole, so, your destination will be the closest blackhole. The nearest body was thought to be a black hole in the last two centuries is around 1500 light-years away, but the closest star to our solar system is called Proxima Centauri died many years ago and became a black hole. Therefore, you will have to travel to this black hole that far away from earth by approximately 4 light-years.”
Leo was touching his curly hair and looked like he was drowning in deep thinking. He asked, “So, how long the journey will take from us?”
The scientist answered, “I have already said it! This machine (pointing his finger at the ship) is the most powerful and sophisticated spaceship ever created by humans, and it is called the Monster. It is the output of challenging work of more than two centuries. This machine is a monster that can move at the light through space. However, the problem is that this machine needs an enormous amount of energy that cannot all be stored on this spaceship because it should be as light as possible. Therefore, this spaceship can take you only next to the sun at the light-speed will take only eight minutes. In addition, the energy needed for this long journey is not available on earth, and we believe that the sun can provide this energy needed. Subsequently, you should stop next to the sun for one day to charge the generators again. When you get to the other universe, you should consider yourselves as you are in the same location that you traveled from in the original universe. In other words, you will find the other earth and sun in the other universe in the same location as in the original universe.”
The scientist started distributing documents, and he said: “Here are documents that explain everything about the journey from A to Z. These papers cover the technical side and the path of the journey, so, please, read them carefully. If you have any questions about the content, do not hesitate to contact me! “
While students were trying to leave (Their faces looked like tired of the overwhelmed science they got), the scientist said while turning his back to them and trying to write something on some papers on a table was in front of him, “In the coming 15 days, you will have a training about how to use the Monster, and you will be put under pressure and tricky situation that you might face during your journey!”
The six students have experienced rigorous training. They are tired and they miss their relatives but remembering the journey that they were about to start, they just get their energy back. After fifteen days, and on the night before the start of the journey, the scientist met the six students to give them the last words.
The scientist, “It is the moment that you were waiting for a long time. It is time for every one of you to be the hero that will never be forgotten by the human species if you succeed. We do not know what you are going to find or face, but you should keep in mind that there are humans on earth who are considering you as the only hope they have. They have just realized how politics, countries, military, ideologies, religions are useless to their existence. They have just realized that if one of these had power over them in the past, it was just in their minds. Now, none of them is trying to save their lives, but it is you who is doing so, humans. Everything turns out to be useless except human beings who are the ones who created even those limits.”
The time for the journey to start came, and the Monster is ready to leave. The six students got into the spaceship, except Leo who got stuck in the toilet thinking about the probability that the journey might fail. At the same time, scientists were looking for him, in fact, everyone was calling him. Leo was going through a harsh process of thinking and worrying because he was surrounded by a lot of uncertainty. However, the main question that was knocking in his head is why specifically me? It was not my mistake to be greedy, and to choose the economy over the environment? Suddenly, he stood up once he heard someone calling his name.
“I am here! I am here! I am coming!” Leo answered while he was trying to wipe his tears quickly.
The son joined the team on the Monster, and they started the big journey while there were a lot of people attending the event. Among those people, there were the team’s families looking at their hearts getting away. It is when you really want to be selfish, and you start asking yourself why your child should pay the cost of a problem that they did not cause. However, this selflessness is the same one that was pushing people in the past to make these wrong choices. The spaceship left the earth holding not only the students but also the hope of the human species on earth.
NASA scientists could detect the movement of the spaceship until it got next to the sun. They could make sure that the charge of the generators had happened successfully. Once the ship left, NASA scientists started following the movement of the spaceship through their computers. According to the messages NASA scientists were getting from the Monster, for 8 minutes the team got next to the sun, and they started charging successfully. The communication was kept during the one day that is needed to charge the generators. The overall conversation about the charging, technical situation of the ship, and the psychology of the team members.
After a day, communication stopped, and NASA scientists started a long waiting of 16 years until they would get a sign that the Monster entered the solar system again. It is eight years to go and come back from the black hole in the original universe and another eight years to go from the black hole to the earth in the other universe and to come back. Nasa did not inform the team’s families about this lengthy period, and they prevented students from meeting their families to avoid any unexpected reaction from the families. However, after the Monster left, NASA informed the families about the period that is going to be taken by the journey.
After 12 years, NASA radars had not yet got any sign that a suspicious entity had entered the solar system. Years have passed since the Monster left, and most of the scientists who witnessed this event do not exist anymore because they have died or got sick and are unable to work. The earth started witnessing a substantial number of natural disasters. The sea devours many continents, and the atmosphere got weaker, so people started getting more cancers because of the sun rays that are not filtered.
One night, NASA radars noticed something bizarre has entered the solar system, and it is getting closer to the earth like the earth is its destination. The watchers in NASA informed NASA experts immediately to come and to try to identify the identity of this suspicious entity that is coming to the earth. Because this entity was extremely fast, it got to the earth before the experts started their analysis. It was a very blue small spaceship that is almost made only of glass. NASA experts were afraid to get closer to the spaceship because they had never seen anything like that. In addition, it does not look like the spaceship that was sent 12 years ago.
NASA scientists were carefully located next to the ship in the dark while the ship’s door opened, and a group of people left the ship. One of NASA oldest scientists took off her glasses and started crying and talking.
“Wait a minute! (She walked towards them, and she cannot believe what she was looking at) This is the team we sent to space 12 years ago! But how can they come before spending 16years?” the scientist asked.
While the scientist was wondering, three people got out of the sheep wearing medical masks and white overalls. The scientist opened her eyes and took a step back.
One member of the team said, “Don’t get scared! It is a long story, and we will make all of you understand everything.”
The NASA scientists, the team, and the guests moved to NASA location. The team members look different and older. However, their eyes were excited to talk and describe what they had to go through. While the team was talking about the journey, NASA scientists were only thinking about two questions: Did they find another earth? And who are those three people?
“The journey was awfully long, boring, and exciting at the same time! One of the moments I will never forget is how we felt and what we saw while going through the black hole. Our movement was very quick, so we could not even see things around us clearly. In fact, even if things were clear, the fear of experiencing something that humans have never experienced before would prevent us from seeing. It was a few seconds before getting out of the black hole to another universe, and we thought that the black hole took us back to our first place because everything was the same as in our universe. Finally, we got to the earth, and once we saw the green colors on the planet from the space, we made sure that we are in another universe and people there made the right choice.” Leo said.
“We landed on the earth among a lot of people who were called the world military. We tried to convince them that we are not going to harm their earth, and we just need to talk to any astronomy scientist if there is any. We talked to them about the path of wars, boundaries, anti-environment, inequality, and extravagance that humans chose. We told them that the old generation did not think about the coming ones, so the current generation is paying the cost of choosing humans everything that was against humanity. Finally, we told them how and why we came to them. Afterword, we started asking them about their earth and their life.
They told us that they chose to be unified, so they do not have something called boundaries, countries, or nationalities. While on our earth we decided to divide the world into the north and the south, they chose to achieve high equality between the whole human beings. In fact, you can just imagine that for every wrong decision we made here, there is a right one made on that earth. Therefore, they did not waste their resources on politics like elections or on defending silly boundaries. We have discovered that poverty, wars, hunger, and inequality have never needed politicians to get rid of them, but they were the reason for having those problems on the earth. Politicians kept creating and growing up the illusion of national identity, origins, and national sovereignty to keep us fighting each other while they were exploiting the resources.” Another team member said.
“Are these people from that earth? And why do they wear like that?” The scientist asked.
“Those are doctors from the other earth. People there recently have faced many viruses that killed many of them, and they are here to make sure we are not holding any dangerous virus before moving to their earth.” Leo answered.
The scientist asked, “But how could you come before spending 16 years?”
A member from the team answered, “Once we got there, we found out that the people on the other earth are very advanced technologically. They developed a spaceship that can defy scientific facts by traveling at speed that exceeds the light-speed. Therefore, we came back earlier.”
While NASA scientists started calculating how many trips, they were going to need to move all the people to the other universe, Leo, as every member of the team went back to his family. As a reward for the sacrifices of the team that went to the other universe, they were chosen to be in the first bath that will go to the other earth.
As was planned, the first trip included the families’ team members. Before anyone gets into the spaceship, they should be checked by doctors who came from the other universe. NASA scientists noticed something weird about the process of checking that was used by these doctors. In other words, these doctors do not only do virus tests on people, but they also measure their length, width, and weight. In addition, they ask them to take a hypnotic to sleep during the whole journey. NASA scientists kept their concerns for themselves because they needed to save the human species. People also accepted these conditions because it was their only hope left.
The first trip was done successfully, and more spaceships were sent to bring more people faster. These people were welcomed in a big residential complex where every family has its own apartment. However, they were not allowed to leave this residential complex because they were convinced that this was going to be just temporary. These people do not need, anymore, to wear oxygen bottles, but they felt like they gave up on their freedom for that. Months have passed, but they still do not have the right to leave their residences. In addition, they have noticed that the team members and NASA scientists have disappeared for no reason.
After a few days, people got very frustrated and bored, and they wanted to understand what was happening. Therefore, they started a protest, and they tried to break the gates of the residential complex. Afterward, an enormous number of soldiers immediately came to stop them, and they started violently whipping the protesters as animals. At that time, people felt, and understood that something wrong was happening. They stopped protesting because they could not stand how violent the military was with their whips. Soldiers stood in a big circle gathering the protesters inside that circle.
Suddenly, more soldiers joined the circle like they were preparing for something. After a few minutes, a man was walking slowly towards the circle with a classic suit and black glasses while he was putting his hands in his pockets. Some soldiers immediately brought a podium for that person who was coming. Afterward, the person stood on that podium while he was surrounded by two soldiers. The person then turned his eyes from the right to the left looking at the people who were in the circle before he started talking.
The person, “In fact, we were confused when the team you sent reached us. We really were curious to meet you and to know about you as we were afraid of you. The team was too honest in telling us about you and your history. Of course, it is our duty and our right to defend our legacy, nation, and planet. We cannot just allow you to be mixed with us and lead our planet to the end that you lead yours to. You lost your chance to live, so this is our earth only and our chance. In fact, we thought about killing the team, but you would send more people. We thought about bringing all of you, but that might be a wrong move because of your bad reputation. Finally, we were left with one option. We said to your team ‘we are more advanced than your people. We can kill you, and your people will never know about it. We cannot host all your people, but we can be generous to accept only a group of you to be part of us. This group might be you if you helped us to achieve our plan. We asked them to go back and to inform you that they found another earth, and you are welcome.’
The two people we sent with your team are more than doctors, they are soldiers who were sent to watch the team following the rules. Now, we are confused again after bringing you to our planet between whether to kill you or keep you alive but as slaves. I believe that you went through this long journey to stay alive…”
End 

 

If a Moroccan scholar asks me about the purpose of Moroccans, I answer that the Moroccan society only lives for a cultural ideal. The cultural existence of Moroccans, that is, the social will to fill in the intellectual (philosophical) gap with mere cultural ingredients, is what I call the Moroccan existential illusion or simply the Moroccan Illusionism. While it is true that culture does not perpetuate social illnesses inside one’s country, I believe that the Moroccan cultural structure has been severely impacted when interceding with western technologies. It is not that western technologies are poisonous to the South, nor is it true that science is the epidemic that corrupted the insides of Morocco. Still, it is undoubtedly precarious that Morocco was not ready for a technological transition within its culturally dominant territory. I believe that cultural existentialism gave priority to the Moroccan heart over the Moroccan brain, for cultural existence relies on false unverified knowledge. But when the cultural existence paralleled the technical existence of science, a substantial existential crash occurred inside the belief system of Moroccans. It could be said that the Moroccan belief system was destroyed from within its deepest mini-psychological structures. Moroccans were not ready for a technological discovery like the Western World and therefore fell miserably inside an endemic of social and psychological self-doubt and self-confusion. I believe that the social reasons why Moroccans were never ready for technological advancement include the presence of weak structural concipients of what constitutes the pillars of a good standard of society. These include weak economic, social, and political institutions, poor quality of information literacy and mediatic sociology, poor scientific inquiry and interpretation of the information available inside the country, and high levels of cultural convictions against high levels of scientific exportations from the West. 

Whether Moroccans are free or unfree, or whether they are wisely intelligent and free-willers, or whether they are the least free people amidst the Atlantic hemisphere? This question supposes that the free will of Moroccans is either present or absent inside their belief system. I argue that Moroccans are like monkeys inside cages, for they have forgotten the correct way to live one’s life. Rich men and wealthy woman, poor rural people alike, live their lives convincing themselves that they must live a life of richness, jewelry, aesthetic publicity, luxury, and celebrity. Still, they decide to live a life of moral neutrality, for I believe they have lost their heart and their passion in this life. What is most ironic about these people is that they strive for richness no matter the price to pay, even if it is the life of a brother or a caring mother. While it is true that the United States is a rich country, Morocco is nonetheless much poorer when it comes to its spiritual and material economy. Morocco is still lacking when it comes to the contemporary economy in comparison to the United States. Even though this gap is extreme evidence of a difference in wealth, Moroccans still wish to become famous international stars like Tom Cruise, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Justin Bieber. They discover the stars’ diplomacy when looking at screens and social celebrity platforms. Let the author be clear that purposing towards becoming an international celebrity or a star diplomat has never been a poor passion or a poor conception of life. Instead, it may be an elevation of character towards influencing people at the global surface of the earth. Still, Moroccans failed to protect their identity (who they are?). They sold their strong social personality to the technicality of life, the life of the bourgeoise aristocracy, material jealousy, and physical esthetics without getting rid of their material vanity, and extensive comparison of material acquisitions. They surrendered themselves when they failed to abandon their vanity and material connectivity towards a better goal than mere technicality. They sold their particular precious virtue to a miserable sentiment of an economically hierarchical pleasure. They failed to concentrate on family, social, and global bonds to give place to an evil version of themselves without carrying the excellent message of being a lovely friendly social person. Many of the Moroccans with whom I talk perceive each other as demons. If we believe that Moroccans ceased to dream, then we think that humanity lost its dreams also. The problem is not that Moroccan people are incapable of dreaming, striving for their dream, and achieving it. Still, instead, they have lost the capacity to follow their chosen path and be leaders of their responsible morality. They are no longer aware of the social problems of their society and keep destroying the Moroccan social system to endure their physical pleasure and lust for power. The eminent impact of their action has been the destruction of the surficial area of the Moroccan pyramid, which is a necessary underground for building any architectural structure, and which is also the particular youth area in the Moroccan context. This area is also the most sensitive inside the pyramid because it includes babies, children, and adolescents. Due to the fertility of these transitional periods of age, the impact of the Moroccan social legacy slaps them firsthand. Suppose one asks to exemplify and give realistic imagery about the Moroccan youth. In that case, I answer that this category of age is like a beautiful field of flourishing green plants, crops, and flowers. If someone sees it, he feels peace by the amount of pleasure that his eyes experience. When a climate crisis heats the beautiful field and destroys its underground stems and petals, the field becomes a desolated garden surrounded by chaotic dust. The climate crisis erased the herb but failed to sponge away the calamity that it resulted. If the climate crisis continues, the entire field will be washed away, and what was once a beautiful field may transform into an epicenter. Such a symbolic phenomenon also applies to Moroccan youth. 

What I see as evidence is that Moroccans were not immune to the western wave of technology and scientific research at the time it knocked on the door of Traditional Morocco. The Moroccan community was not enough mature and philosophical to input the ideas of the Western World and output them in an authentic Moroccan format. The lack of philosophical, sociological, political, institutional, scientific, and illuminating scholarly and storytelling books restricted the perpetuation of an automated Moroccan fulfillment at the national level, let alone the international level. It can be argued that Moroccans are not self-saturated from an intellectual standpoint to carve away corruption from standing in their way. Along with economic and social weak institutionalizations, Moroccans’ existentialism has been delimited by economic factors but never self-motivating factors, something that often creates a tendency to run after material power and forget self-intellectual improvement, inter-social harmony and stabilization, and economic positive nationalism and loyalty. I believe that Moroccans are also lacking the huge capacity to connect with available information and absorb the quality rather than the quantity of it. Because quality is more important than quality in a general way, Moroccans are often not performing well in creative and self-critical tasks, as most of them are technical, restrictively mathematical, and mechanichal. While it is true that Moroccans are fabulously innovative and fast executives of technical tasks, I believe that a literature creative person is rare to find among Moroccans. Therefore, Moroccans tend to perform poorly in philosophical explanations. Not that philosophy is accessible to all just like mathematics which is inaccessible to mathematical elites, but that the majority of Moroccans are not good communicative writers. In other words, a Moroccan would find it hard to express his mathematical finitude at the level of an academic research paper extensively relying on written literature. To combat cultural ignorance, the Moroccan system must rely on extensive literature, ideas, and novel concepts. While utilizing mathematics, mechanical physics, and biotechnology to repair the economy and enhance its full potential, the Moroccan nationals need simultaneously to read books of good quality literature and political concepts in order to acquire a herd immunity against the moral corruption of the state. With the development of digital libraries that are accessible for free to the international public, Morocco has to sensibilize its citizens about the quality of philosophical conceptualizations and parameters so as to enhance the performance of political institutions inside the country. Moroccans should cease to deteriorate the value of literature at the expense of practical science. Certainly, Moroccans are dependent on both scientists and social theorists. I believe also that a combination between scientific expertise and sociological expertise will push up the Moroccan industrial and ideological economy towards the highest degrees of performance. 

The Islamization of the Moroccan state has also accentuated the cultural shock between Morocco’s religiousness and American secularism. When the American influence infiltrated the Moroccan territory for the first time, the state of Morocco was a super-Islamic state. Although its people lived with authentic values such as traditional honor, respect, and humility, when the Western technologies and social media intersected with Morocco’s traditional tribalism, the point of intersection failed to create as if the lines continued to grow in infinite spirals without so much interceding. If someone tries to decipher the spiral, the mission will be as hard as distinguishing an Arabic horse from an Amazigh one. Even though Moroccan Illusionism is solvable, it still demands perseverance and a soul of Moroccan humanism. But if someone is able to solve it, this person or this group of intellectuals should notice how Moroccans substantially fear death but keep believing that death is an end in itself. If they believe that death is an end in itself, then their faithful existence is a self-treason, for they are traitors of their individual faith, the only thing that makes a person a special individual, a unique shape who has the right to enunciate the personal pronoun “I”. I believe also that the cultural “status” in the midst of a social society such as Traditional Morocco encouraged traditional and untraditional alike to buy their status in exchange for their personal faith. Not only have they betrayed the Ultimate Sovereign of the seven seas and the seven oceans, but they have betrayed what a human values the most which is his very freedom to be and to become. What are Moroccans and what have they become? Or even better, what are they to become? Are they free-willers, compassionate, moral, ethical persons or are they prisoners of their own dilemma, the dilemma of self-loss and miserably, internal inconsistency between the Eternal Offer of God all-powerful and the Temporary Offrande of God like pieces of silver with no value besides what the human engraved inside it? Certainly, if Islam has been the best gift to the underworld, then I do not believe that Muslims are faithful protectors of this gift, for most Moroccan Muslims may have visited the Kaaba, touch the stone of Abraham, and felt the generosity of the holy place, yet have failed the most enormous requirement of being a good Muslim and person above all that is, to have faith at whatever time and space they may have experienced. Some may have died in the latest years, and not even have experienced a single momentum of pure faith in the Only God. One may see them bowing bestowed towards the ground, and yet they are the most miserable Moroccans I have ever known. 

 

 

by  Douae Doukkali

One must be endowed with a particularly acute auditory sensitivity to be able to appreciate the subtleties of the sound patterns that set the pace of human history. From the ringing of bells, liturgical instruments above all, to the percussive steps of soldiers ready to fire their weapons, human beings have always been surrounded by a religious and warlike acoustic. However, despite this wide range of sound perceptions, nothing is more deafening than the tumult of philosophical quarrels. The battle between idealists and materialists, or more specifically between Socrates and Nietzsche, is arguably the most illustrative example of this intellectual uproar. Indeed, a careful reading of the main works of prominent materialists reveals an exacerbated criticism towards their opponents, to the extent that one cannot help but wonder about the reasons that justify such hostility towards idealism. Thus, the examination of this philosophical movement through a physiological and psychological prism proves necessary to shed light on the factors that make it a highly prejudicial ideology.

First of all, a proper understanding of idealism requires a suitable definition. For instance, idealism is a metaphysical doctrine that “stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual in the interpretation of experience” (Robinson et al. 1). In other words, it is a set of beliefs revolving around the condemnation of the body coupled with the celebration of the soul.

However, despite the appeal that this ideology may have on spiritually inclined people, the physiological consequences it entails are extremely damaging. According to idealists, among whom there are significant intellectual figures such as Kant, Hegel, Leibniz, and most importantly, Socrates and his loyal disciple Plato, nothing is as despicable as the flesh. In fact, all that relates to the body and the pleasurable sensations that it can provide deserves to be regarded with great disdain, for they are mere distractions that prevent us from devoting ourselves to the contemplation of pure ideas, essential elements that constitute the essence of the heavenly world. The ascetic man, devoid of all sensuality and earthly desire, is the ultimate ideal of this intellectual movement. For instance, Socrates articulates his view on this matter in a scathing statement: “The body is the grave of the soul” (Jowett and Plato 371). The physiological implications of such a view are dramatic, as the evolution of species, through the process of natural selection, is based entirely on sexual desire along with the various physical sensations it generates. To condemn these sensations is to condemn humanity.

Moreover, the detrimental effects of idealism extend to the field of psychology. In fact, the disregard of the senses, of which sexual abstinence is the most extreme embodiment, leads to utter psychological frustration. Anxiety, emotional breakdown, chronic stress and other mental disorders result from a negative attitude towards one’s urges. Furthermore, the Socratic reasoning in itself is the culmination of a deficient psychological system. One might wonder what kind of strange and overwhelming impulse led Socrates to such morbid ravings; his philosophy is rooted in profound lassitude, the fertile ground on which the seeds of his dense ideology have sprouted. Nietzsche, for whom lassitude is an undeniable symptom of decadence, reminds us of the Athenian’s last words, a vibrant testimony of the psychological illness that haunted him throughout his life: “Living – that means being sick a long time” (Rowe and Plato 296). For Socrates and his followers, life is nothing but a burden to be shed, a long illness of which death is the ultimate deliverance, and the afterlife the glorious completion. Therefore, according to materialists, a firm believer in idealism is simply a shattered conscience that constantly craves the very thing that torments it, which is a typical behavior of the mentally deranged.

According to the information provided above, it is tempting to consider that idealism is a philosophical doctrine that carries within it the seeds of its own destruction, for it rests on the conviction that any concession to instincts leads to chaos. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that these assertions merely reflect the perspective of the materialists, who saw their opponents as a threat to physical and mental well-being. Idealism, like any philosophical theory, exhibits a certain degree of complexity. Indeed, the spiritualist approach holds many potential benefits for individual and collective growth, another relevant topic worthy of further research.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Robinson, Daniel Sommer. “Types of Philosophical Idealism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1999, https://www.britannica.com/topic/idealism/Types-of-philosophical-idealism.

Jowett, Benjamin, and Plato, “Cratylus.” The Dialogues of Plato, Thoemmes Press, Bristol, England, 1997, p. 371.

Rowe, Christopher J., and Plato, Phaedo, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001, p. 296.

In the waiting room, I sat worried. I knew what was waiting for me. I had only one idea in mind, the idea that I would enter that pale, colourless room, as if death had come to say hello to her and go his way. But I was sure that I would forget everything as soon as I got out of that dark room as a whole once. As soon as I heard a voice calling out my name, I learned that the utensils had even lost a headache and toothache. I entered the room and the doctor greeted me with his smile as usual, a smile that looked like a glimmer of hope before the disaster. I entered the fork tattered my teeth, so I felt pain, it was not strange, I felt it every time, and every time I got dizzy. The drug was penetrating my veins. I don’t feel my mouth anymore, it was cold as winter breezes. But I was able to bear that cold, as I endured a colder and more reluctant than  

This: The coldness of loneliness. Hands were passing over my eyes, and multiple machines were gnawing at my teeth. Do you improve with pain? No. I really didn’t feel the pain, but the sharp sound of the machines decimated my patience and made me drown in a sea of thoughts. I wish I felt the pain of the teeth and did not leave alone with my thoughts, thoughts that snout my soul more than the machines do toutmy. I wanted time to pass through the blink of an eye and get out of this lonely hall, so that I don’t hear that anonymous voice that appears at any time, unfortunately I chose this time of all time. In a place that resembles outer space surrounded by darkness and blackness, he said to me, you are alone now, words cannot come out of your hollows… No one will listen to her… Be quiet! Be quiet! Be quiet! I told him. Every time I reconcile myself and enjoy with her, this voice comes and ruins everything.  

 Passing phrases for those who are still seeking the genius of beginnings still live on the moment in the meantime, I know that you will pass on my phrases passing by and know that you whisper to your heart in the meantime and reassure him and tell him that you will not reach him for this stage because you think that you have a friend of gold and that you are lucky and that God loved you and blessed you with a friend like him and that he is special and different from the other 40 million people or something like that … But I am sure that it will stop and tear the heart of those who live on the anniversary today who was living the same beginning as you one day and was whispering to his heart the same words as you passed by on phrases like this that are in your hands now and I am one of them…. I also once reassured my heart and said don’t be afraid, my heart is different, don’t be afraid, my heart, I handed you to the trustworthy, it was like a homeland to which I escape from the ugliness of the boring world.  Despite all these beautiful moments and this blind trust, I have failed… I failed and the hardest letdown was the ninth time and a thousand curses on number nine I don’t know what his story with me like I’m playing a movie or something like that it’s number nine follows me everywhere and the rest of my soul goes down. 2009, ninth grade, the ninth letdown, the first failwas in the month of nine and that friend also came to Dunya in the month of nine is it a coincidence or is it a destiny written in the letters of the god, I do not know what his story with me. …  But all I know is that I spent beautiful moments with him, even though he let me down so much that I wished time would stop. I felt with him for the first time that I was alive for the first time, and I believed in myself for the first time, knowing how strong I was for the first time in nine years, i felt like I was alive again. But fate had an opinion of the end of time passing and there is no way to stop him at our beautiful moments year after year and that friend began to change you know and met others of the best of me and some of them from the worst of me, matured and matured his ideas and changed his personality for the worst and better together and my presence became unwelcome in his life our thoughts diverged our thoughts became each of us became like water and fire and i was fire and was water …   This has changed and this is his right, not blame, feelings and emotions we cannot control, they control us, whether we like it or not, and we have no choice but to bow to them… Only God knows how much I tried to fix our relationship. May be.. May be..  My mind knows that both study and shame are innocent of these false accusations, but whoever convinces the heart of my mind says one thing and is right and my heart says something else and is false, but there is no evidence, but I also swing between them, i find myself in my mind, i leave it in my heart, I can’t be stronger than three days, and to overcome this contradiction between my heart and my mind, i decided to give a hundred chances and my heart will not be spared. We had a total of 200 chances, and the agreement, when it came into effect, was going back today, my mental opportunities were running out, and my heart’s chances were still at the 67th. But I decided to end it yesterday and in the end I am a lady myself and not my mind or my heart will not lie to myself and torture her again, the end is inevitable I feel it is very close honesty feel so it will not make a difference whether it is today or after tomorrow or after a year or three I do not care in the end is the end and will come and will end everything . I know that it is very difficult to give up your homeland and your safety but I have to do it, I sacrificed my dignity and pride enough i became the one who always started messaging became so humiliated that it became worthy of my thoughts my words my things because I want to share my things with my news, the initiative is also my tears and ridicule of me and cold ask me what you want to change what you want from me what I have done to you I will answer you and I hope that this publication became more like i want to say it I wanted you to change, you’re a changed place, and this problem I wanted you to come back, not change enough, and what you did to me is that you left me trapped in the memories of ninth grade and a thousand curses on number nine again, and you got so bad that you made me feel scared like you, I’m talking to you, and I think you’re making fun of me, I doubt you’re cheating on me. Even if it hurts, I believe that it will be easy one day, yes, but this time it will be easy to cope, but after patience, we live in the hope of returning what we have lost, but the adaptation is nothing but getting used to the new life, no matter how it is, which is the best i will not forget, but I will adapt… If I was writing because not to come back, but to stay away if you were reading, I hope you will not text me again because, despite my strength and my prayers with everyone, I am weaker there…