My name is Maram and l am now 21 years old. In 2022, l graduated from high school
with a GPA 98.7 and decided to join the faculty of English literature - minor in
translation in the IUG (the Islamic university of Gaza). Thankfully, l finished my first year
with distinguished, and was super proud of myself and ready for the upcoming years.
Unfortunately, just after a month in my second year, the war in Gaza broke out
destroying all our goals and dreams. Life then felt meaningless without education specially
for a work harder like me who also admires learning and always wanting to show the best
of myself. Despite that, l did not give up. I used to look for any libraries to buy some
books to read; however, l did not find anywhere l were evacuated. Therefore, l begin to
upload the books as pdfs and read them using my IPad. That was not essay at all due to
the internet connection that was almost all the time not available. During the war, l read
more than 100 books in different fields, and l am still reading. After almost a year in the
war, my university announced that it is time to go back and resume our study no matter
what. It first l was happy for that but then became desperate when l realized that l cannot
join because of my hard circumstances: l had no place, no books, and no internet
connection; everything around me was saying it is impossible. I could not join my
colloquies that year, but thankfully, l was able to join the summer term after a ceasefire
was announced and l was able to go back home in the 27 of January. I will be lying if l
said that everything was okay and that l got distinguished at that term easily. In my
neighborhood, water, electricity, shops, homes, internet connection, and even safety were
all missing. I used to upload my lectures and apply to my exams in the roof which was a
dangerous thing to do particularly in an eastern neighborhood like mine, Al-Shujaia. After
completing my last exam in that semester, instead of being relaxed after two months of
studying, l was supposed to pack my bag to leave my home; the home that is now
completely leveled down to earth. Until now, l cannot go back and see the rubble of my
home as my neighborhood is a red zone and people are not allowed to there. Now, l am
on my third year, things are still hard but l strongly believe that as a Palestinian, l must
resume my study, I must write, and my voice must be heard as this is a kind of resilience.
Hope is always there in our hearts and it is the hope that makes us still alive till now.