When the Siege Began

No one had told me that dreams have enemies, and that some are fought before they ever see the light.

As I grew older, my dream grew with me. I studied hard and believed that diligence was the only way to reach medical school. I saw my future clear before me, until I thought nothing could stop me.

But I was wrong.

I began to hear words I did not understand at first. They would say: "This much education is enough," and "a girl's place is in the home," and "these are our customs and traditions." I listened in silence and wondered: does a dream have an age at which it stops? And does knowledge have a limit beyond which a person is forbidden to go?

Those words fell upon my heart like stones. I tried to hold on to hope and convince myself that tomorrow would be more beautiful, but each day brought with it a new door closing in my face.

It was not the exhaustion that pained me, nor the length of the road, nor staying up late to study. What pained me was feeling that my dream was being put on trial because it was the dream of a girl.

I saw my classmates planning their futures and talking about universities and majors, while I feared the day would come when I would be asked to give up everything I had built inside me.

And every night, I raised my hands to the sky and said:

"O Lord... do not let my dream die before I see it become reality."

But I did not know that the coming days would bring me a test that no books could teach me how to pass.