Recapping 2011

The year 2011 served as a significant milestone on the scale of my life. Like 2006, with my graduation from high school and starting university; 2009 with my graduation from university and getting a job; 2011 marked another, more personal turning point, marriage.

What an emotional rollercoaster! It was perhaps the most hectic year, but the happiest none the less. It marked a huge change, yet stability, it was painstaking, yet worth it, and it was fun, yet costly.

In plain and simple terms, 2011 is the future. All along it has been “when I grow up” or “when I graduate” or “when I get married” …I’m there!

Last year, and like so many years before it, I made a new year’s resolution list. Similar to everyone’s my list included “being more religious”, “being healthier”, “taking more charge”…and “starting a Blog” (which was mainly due to the encouragement I got from Seth Godin’s book “Linchpin”.)

This time something worked.

I’m happy to report that until today I have posted 65 blogs (including this one), had 3,833 page views, had audience from all over the world including 1,340 from Lebanon, 434 from the United States, and 235 from the United Kingdom, in addition to 8 followers.

Yayy!

I don’t know about my Pisces horoscope reading for 2012 but my hopes are high.

Happy New Year!

Winter gets me in the London Mood

For those of you who have been reading my blog from the beginning, you are familiar with the post “They still haven’t found it yet!  L”

http://byserene.blogspot.com/2011/01/they-still-havent-found-it-yet.html

If not, here’s a brief.

On my way back from my last trip to London last January, MEA airlines or “someone” lost my luggage. After letters, phone calls, searches, and a whole lot of trips to the airport, I was compensated US$ 600 and an airline ticket voucher worth US$700.

This year, and in January, I’m going back to London for a family visit, and a little shopping and sightseeing. I just can’t help it; London is a winter city, especially with all the rain and clouds, so when it rains in Lebanon everything around me seems to turn into sterling pounds, red double-decker busses, and checkered jackets.

The seat is reserved, the ticket is bought, the Dollars are converted, and the lists are completed, all I have to do now is wait till the 31^st of December. The only thing that’s hindering my excitement and bothering me is that my husband can’t join me!

The Employee Search

Lately, my department has been looking to recruit a couple of new employees for two vacant positions we have. Considering that we rely greatly on team work, each one of the current employees in the department is required to pitch in when it comes to screening CV’s, making calls, and organizing interview outlines and guideline, in order to help our heads make an educated decision.

You can’t imagine how good it felt being on the other side of the desk. Being the one making the calls instead of receiving them and assisting in the decision process instead of being under judgment.

After contacting the HR department for some CV’s we were sent a file that had over a hundred printed out CV’s and a link to the Bank’s “Career” email for some million more.

The disaster!

How on earth do these graduates plan on getting hired if:

1.       They send CV’s from emails such as: 50centtt@..., mumususu@..., angeleyes12@..., and so many weird, childish emails its hilarious!

2.       They send emails with no content or no subject.  What kind of reputable company will hire someone who doesn’t even write “Kindly find my CV attached for a job vacancy at your esteemed company” in the email.  Is it that hard!

3.       They send emails with content that is so rubbish, that it gets the employer to close it and delete it with out even reaching the middle or opening the attached CV.

4.       They put the “career” email on their mailing list and start forwarding jokes, images, and those “if you don’t send this in 10 minutes, you’ll be cursed for life” emails.

5.       Their CV’s are too long, or two short, or don’t convey the key information an employer is looking for.

6.       They put the phrase “meet people and have a social life” in their Career Objective.

Or (excuse my bias for AUB and LAU)

7.       They are a graduate from a mini-market university, that opened yesterday, and isn’t accredited or reputable!

“POP” goes the Career Dream

How many of you ladies go through university thinking that you will be that next Oprah, Carol Bartz, or Indra Nooyi?

I know I did…

I had always thought that as soon as I graduate, I want to get my dream job; something that is interesting, challenging, and rewarding, I wanted to be in on time, do a little over time, and deliver a little extra to set myself apart from the rest. I wanted to wear my heals, pencil skirts and blazers, sit in important meetings, and have my lunch brought to me desk. I wanted to be given the hard tasks because I’m simply the best, get recognition for what I do, and be on my boss’s good side so I can skip that career ladder and use the career elevator.

How things change…

After sending endless CV’s to almost every employer I can get my hands on, going to endless interviews, and waiting patiently for a call back, I found a job (scratch dream). At first it was great! I was finally living the dream! Until interesting became boring, challenging became a routine, and rewarding became pocket money. Then getting out of bed was a drag, doing a little overtime was torture, and delivering a little extra…why should I bother! Then heals gave blisters, skirts were too up-tight, and blazers looked better on Jeans. And the career elevator, more like climbing up Mount Fuji, barefooted, and pulling a wagon of boulders behind you!

Being Optimistic…

I still want to find the dream job, and be all that I can be. However, having a lenient work schedule, moderate work load, dressing casually, and leaving early are much more valued than anything else. No matter how much time and energy we give into work it will never be enough, the job will never be done, and it might save you a year or two on the promotion, but being able to spend extra time with friends, family and soon children is worth much more than having a corner office.

Little Brother

Can you think of someone, anyone, who is your oldest friend, someone you can’t remember your childhood without, someone who has been with you through thick and thin, someone who you fought with, then made up, someone who blackmailed you with your secrets but never told anyone, someone who has always shared everything with you, including the last piece of cake that everyone fights for.

A lot of people are popping up in your head right now, but in mine, I can see one person.

He was born on November 9, 1989, a year and 8 moths after my birth date. He was chubby, pink, and blond. Everyone at the hospital was in awe at what a beautiful baby he was. At the time, I was preoccupied with my red tricycle and shoes to notice the new family member.

Before long, he was walking behind me, playing with me; from Barbies to cars; and even sharing some of my clothes. Growing up in Canada with Lebanese roots and Arabic being spoken at home, no one could understand his heavy Anglo-Arab words but me.

The older we grew, the more distracted we got with our own lives. The last days of school were marked by official exams, SATs, and university applications. Then came the messed up university schedule, finals, projects, friends, and work. Before we knew it, I was planning a marriage, and he was planning to work abroad.

Now, my little brother is a man, and living and working in another country.

I no longer see him everyday after work, or fight with him because he made me late to work in the morning. No more evening talks about plans, girls, life, education… n no more pancakes with extra Nutella.

I can’t see my little brother everyday and I miss him.

School Boys

A walk down memory lane with Noor this morning made us laugh our hearts out.

The 9^th and 10^th grade, teenagers with raging hormones, boys in baggy jeans with no facial hair whatsoever, puppy love, and an allowance we get at the end of the week from our parents. Classic!

I remember my school days like they were yesterday. When scoring low on a Math exam meant the end of my academic future for ever, not going to Dunes or Concord on Saturday meant the end of my social life, and if that boy doesn’t leave me a letter in my desk at the break, then I won’t let him copy my homework.

Hahaha!

What the hell were we thinking people?

It’s so funny how things that seemed so significant then, are just a topic of a funny conversation now. When we were young, the boy sitting behind us in class was our soul mate; the boy with the new phone was the rich one, and the boy who used to talk back at the teacher and charge out of the class was the bad ass. What a miniature world! Mini in the mind!

When we were is school:

·         We’d like someone because they were good looking (lets face it, being good looking while going through puberty is a real deal breaker),

·         We’d like someone because they had a great personality (Duhh.. at 15, your personality is in the midst of its development)

·         We’d think that guy is a gentleman because he’d pay for our movie tickets, just because we are girls and no girl going out with him would pay (poor kid, he must have saved that allowance all week)

·         We’d think he’s tough if he’d beat up the other boys for talking to us (the classic “what are you looking at” pushing and shoving)

·         We’d think he has cool parents for letting him drive without a license (dumb asses, did you find your kid on the street)

·         We’d think he’s mature if he’d smoke in the playground bathroom (you idiot, it was just yesterday you tried a cigarette and nearly chocked with red eyes)

·         We’d live in ultimate suspense when he’d call our home phones and then jam the line in our parents’ face if they answered (you coward, be a man and ask my dad for permission to talk to me, he won’t bite)

We grow out of all that, apply to university and get a degree, then graduate and get a job…then finally meet the one who is good looking because that’s how God made him, who has a great personality because he had a proper upbringing and learnt from life’s lessons, who pays for our everything because he earned the money to do so, who stands up for us when we need it the most, and who has the guts to knock on our parents’ door and ask their permission for marriage.

I can’t wait to go through all that again…with my kids!

W Halla’ La Wein?

(Seriously, if you haven’t seen the movie and are planning to, then don’t read this post.)

It will make you laugh, cry, think…it will inspire you, depress you, and then lift you up… that’s Nadine Labaki’s new movie: W Halla’ La Wein?

It takes place in a distant and isolated Lebanese village during the Lebanese civil war, during the time of conflict between Muslims and Christians. The villagers are a mixture of both religions determined to live in harmony while trying to ignore the war going on around them; well at least the women are.

This movie is full of hidden meanings, and each scene or situation could be interpreted differently.

It shows how the Lebanese community doesn’t really have any problems within it except those that come from the outside; be it politics or regional conflicts. On the other hand the same scene could really be an indication of how fragile the Lebanese community is. It shows that religious figures such as a sheikh and a priest struggle to calm the people within their ranks because both religions are about peace and love not hate and bloodshed. It shows how women are greatly impacted by the war; especially on an emotional level either by losing their husbands or children, thus making them more eager to preserve the peace. Or it can reflect how women have a very significant role in calming angry hearts and distracting the men from the conflict. The movie even addresses forbidden love between two people from different religions, and how silence is better than stirring the hidden intolerance.

Nadine was very careful in keeping the balance between both sides. She was clear in portraying how both sides lost, and could continue to lose. She shows how both sides are equally intolerant, and equally savage and ill-tempered. Call it feminist or not, the movie really puts men in the bad seat, since they are more reluctant to thinking before acting even if their actions have deadly consequences.

When it comes to the actors, none are really famous, except for Nadine Labaky and Adel Karam (who has a small role in the movie) however, all played their roles extremely well. Unlike those Lebanese series were actors seem to be reading their scripts while the cameras are rolling, Nadine’s cast is really able to immerse the audience into the center of their everyday lives, make them feel what they feel and go through what they are going through.

Amid the current critical political and social situation in the country, the movie came as a wake up call to those who act before thinking, who play with the social balance, and who think that civil war is easy.