Triggered Perception

by Boutheyna Rahmoune (Algeria)

A leap into the unknown Algeria

You are now expecting from me to tell you a travel story, where I describe for you where I went, what I saw, from mountains to cities, people to cultures, outfits and food with every little detail. I am sorry to disappoint you but this is not going to happen. Although, I will tell you a travel story a little different from the others. I was 17 years old, I had to travel only about 200 kilometers with my dad, I didn’t know where I was going. I knew the name of the place, but nothing else. I got there, unpacked, and here I am taking a walk in the corridors of what I felt it was like a prison, there was one door open, and they put 7 security guards on it. Some people had just arrived, others were complaining to their mothers on the phone, because at first, they put us with 2 other girls. We didn’t know each other, the girls in my room bounded and started talking their lives to each other right away, since I am an introverted personality, I barely talked to anyone. This place was 45 minutes away from where we studied, so if I had a class at 8 I had to wake up at 5 in the morning. My alarm is ringing, but due to the party my neighbors had last night, I slept at 3 am. I’m trying so hard to wake up, I go wash up with that freezing water and go jogging for 45 minutes, then I go back to my room, change and start the day, or the fight. The university bus is never on time, either too early or too late, and my campus is about 2 kilometers away from the bus stop, so if I am a little late, I have to run, no stop. I get to the school, I am not saying university because it isn’t. It’s basically a training to become a teacher, with a guaranteed job position after graduation. In my case, I will be a French teacher. Oh! How much I hate this. But in my country, they consider you the luckiest person on earth if you study in this school just because of the job position, nobody cares if they are doing what they love, or what they are passionate about, and if you complain you become the most arrogant person on earth. Actually, even to my family, once I got sick of this situation, or the fact that I am suffering for something that I don’t even want at the first place, I called my dad, told him that I am quitting, he was like “WHAAT! ARE YOU CRAZY? PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR A POSITION LIKE YOURS AND YOU ARE JUST THROWING THIS AWAY?”. It’s been four years now, I got used to it, I am living with it, I learned new skills, new languages, I a volleyball player, a guitar player. etc, basically trying not to ruin my road trip but getting used to something doesn’t mean liking it, like when we break up with someone, after months, they rarely come to our thoughts, it doesn’t mean that we forgot about them, it just means that we are used to our lives without them. Because the opposite of love is not hate, it’s ignorance. I will not deny that my being here helped me build a personality, be more mature, I learned how to defend myself, how to say no, how to figure out people from the first sight, who is fake and who isn’t. I also learned many different cultures from my own country and most importantly I grew. It’s 11:07 of March 11, and I am writing this and hoping that just one person would read it. That would be enough for me.