“I was born [in Saudi Arabia] and I grew up there. I lived there until I was eight. I miss it. As a Muslim there’s a huge difference being [in] an Islamic country—I have a better sense of belonging there.
I spent my whole summer there this year, I had only gone once since I came [to the U.S]. Before this year we couldn’t go because we were trying to get citizenship and our green card [and] if we went we weren’t going to be allowed back in the United States. Now that we’re citizens we want to go yearly.
I just miss my family. My whole extended family is [in Saudi]. When I was there we had a lot of huge family gatherings and that was really fun. I don’t know what Americans do when you haven’t seen a family member in a while but as an honor we would shake hands, kiss on the cheek, get invited to their house with a lot of other guests and then they would kill a sheep or a camel.
I plan on getting my bachelors in aviation here in America and then moving back to Saudi because I feel like I’m more wanted there. I value family and tradition. To me tradition is things like celebrating Eid but culture is like wearing the red turban and we don’t do that here. We still have tradition; if somebody comes to your house you treat them and accommodate them in the best way possible. It’s just not as common here for us because we have less family visiting.”
