A time where I had an opportunity to join a discourse community was in 2006 when my family moved to Alexandria, Egypt so that I would learn Arabic and study the religion of Islam. Moving to Egypt was probably one of the hardest things I had to live through when it came to fitting in with a community that had no common interests with me. Leaving the United States at age 6 to a whole new environment where literally everything including the air we breathe is different may be viewed as a challenge but in my opinion it could have been worse. My first two years in school were the worst, I got bullied a lot for being the American kid in my class, barely anyone wanted to be my friend because they feared being picked on for being my friends. Luckily I went to a private school so therefore I did manage to make my fair share of American friends, but I still hated it. It almost felt like the school was segregated into two different groups, The foreigners and the Egyptians. Within the two year stay at that school I witnessed countless fights and it was not fun to watch being so young and naïve. The one thing that saved me from staying at that school and possibly ending up very hurt by someone else’s carelessness was the fact that when midterms were going on, the school decided to take all the foreigners and place them all in a classroom without a teacher to hang out all day claiming that none of us payed tuition and that we would have to stay there until our parents arrived to pay it off for us. This sparked a lot of outrage with all the parents. A whole new issue occurred and this time my mother was involved. All my life I hid any of my issues from my parents because I feel like they have enough stress to deal with themselves. The whole secluding the foreign students in an empty classroom situation gave my parents no choice but to move me to another school. This new school was different, almost like a safe haven for anyone. I made so many friends and it felt like the whole school cared for me. The school I attended was so good that even my mother started to work there as a teacher which was amazing. At first I feared to show my true self so I always carried myself like I was ten times my own size to protect myself from any type of harm. Walking into that school on the second week of my first year there I felt like I was walked right through the door of my house ready to feel free of any type of stress. I fit into that discourse community almost as if it was created by myself, and when it was time to leave Egypt 4 years later, it felt like my life was ending.
