Metamorphosing Energies in Motion

by Mhamdi Ahlem (Germany)

A leap into the unknown Germany

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Emotions, as energy in motion, are created by us and we become (re) shaped by them constantly. My story is about a Muslim student who goes to study abroad full of hope and optimism. That does not last for long, as she starts noticing that social integration is more complicated than she expected. Adapting to the new culture and the new environment is not a given matter. Different are the voices that started murmuring to her that she is not enough, she should be back home and that it was a wrong decision to come to a country where she is going to be stigmatized. She notices for the first time that her family name is her limit, it is the border. The first part will be a focus on her trying to make contacts and to overlook those prejudgments. Yasmin tries to stay positive, to initiate contacts and to speak up more in class. However, her intuition always told her that she is not getting the reactions she used to get back home. She decides that engaging in new adventures and doing what used to be taboo for her, would make her look cool amongst her peers. Because it is so boring to be the same person all the time-- I mean it is impossible to be so in the first place but that´s what we learned to say “Be you!”-- Yasmin decided that she needs two Facebook accounts; one for her family/community face and the other for her new self. The second part of the story is about a period of intense anxiety and physical passivity. On the contrary, it is the part where the emotions are in constant motion; pushing the edge and trying to come out in a way or another. Feelings of guilt, loss and becoming suicidal overwhelm the young protagonist. It was that night after her smoking the joint and crying her heart out that something changed in her forever. With trembling body and a fear of the unknown; as in what she can do as a stoned, Muslim female; a flow of big questions started to manifest to her. That moment was so transitional for her because she woke up with a clearer vision about what she needs to do at that point. This third part of the story is where Yasmin starts taking part in activities that she loves, and she believes there is a real goal in them. She embarked on journeys of traveling and charity work and thus she felt that all that suffering was mostly about a trapped in energy that was, in fact, an eager, inner call to put her body—and later her pen-- in motion. They say that there is something of you in everything you say or do; I argue that there is something FOR you in both cases. That´s how her line starts in her first published story!