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Published: December 2nd 2015
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Finally, I made it to the playa 😊 I strongly considered going to Granada, but I was exhausted from the past three days to properly plan it out, and really what is a vacation if you can't rest a little? I spent the day in lovely Málaga where the people have proven to be the sweetest and kindest I have encountered. I visited el Castillo de Gibralfaro, la Alcazaba de Málaga, and Pablo Picasso's birth home. Me not getting to see Alhambra only means that I
must come back for another indulged trip to Spain. I'm thinking of spending a few days in Madrid and Granada next time? Maybe even visit my dear friend in Zaragosa as well. As I have learned, Spain is much too big and beautiful to try to squeeze in a few days. Doing so simply does not do it justice.
Today I finally got to do my "reflections" part of the trip, in which I reflected on the past few years since I've last been to Europe. High in the hills of el Castillo de Gibralfaro and away from the bustling streets of Málaga, I set myself free from the grips of reality and worry
that have been looming over me like a storm cloud over the past few months in anticipation to the end of law school. Jobs, fellowships, application upon application have left questions, doubts and worries in my mind of where I will be one year from now, whether I will be employed, and if so will I be happy of what I am doing. The future and not knowing what it will be is perhaps one of few things that keep me awake at night. Simply not knowing. But today, as I was climbing up the historic castle walls, I let all of that fear and worry go. Suddenly the future, although unknown, became very clear. Come May I will have my education, and I will be free. My life will be
mine, and the quill pen of my destiny lies solely in my hand. At that moment under the warm Spanish sun, I only foresaw more traveling and adventuring, which will bring consequent happiness and personal growth. That alone was enough to put my worries and concerns to rest.
In the late afternoon, I wandered over to the beaches of Málaga only be greeted with "Entrada Prohibida" signs... a
suggestion, I'm sure.
As I watched the Mediterranean waves gently lapse onto the shore a few feet in front of me, I thought about Syria. Arab Spain might be a very cool part of this beautiful country's history, but it very much remains part of my own reality. I left behind a lot in Syria when I left for the last time in 2011, with my most precious treasure still there: I think about my family everywhere, all the time, no matter what part of the world I find myself in. Who you really are and where your heart lies, I have learned, will follow you to the ends of the earth. No doubt I dipped my hands and feet into the same sea here that lapses on the shores of Tartus there, not far from our ancestral village.
I glanced up and noticed the sun quietly escaping. It was time to go back, se pone el sol.
Until soon, Spain.
~Yasmeen
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