"I'm Egyptian and I don't live in the desert!"
    

I have stayed in more than one country; Canada, Egypt, U.S and Saudi Arabia. I was born in Canada and I lived there for six years so I don't really remember it. Then, I moved to Egypt, where my family is from, and I also stayed there for six years. Then, I moved on December 18th, 2012 to the Unite States of America,  which was in the middle of the school year, I remember my first day of school like it happened yesterday. My first class was history and my teacher was welcoming me and asked me where I'm from, I responded with, "I'm from Egypt." The whole class started to gaze at me like they saw an Alien that has arrived at planet earth. I thought there was something wrong with my clothes or my hair so, I started to fix my hair and straighten up my clothes. Then suddenly, a boy raised up his hand so fast, like he has been waiting to ask this question his whole life. The teacher pointed at him and then he asked, "Do you have to ride camels to go to school...?" The whole class started to laugh but then the teacher started to quiet them down, I just smiled and then the same boy raised his hand again and asked," I am being serious do you actually go to school with a camel?" The class giggled again. I simply responded, "We have cars like any other country does." Then the second period I had English, which wasn't bad because he just said to the class that I was a new student and then he moved on with his lesson. Rest of my classes were pretty normal then. During my first week I was being asked these questions like, "Is your mom a mummy?" or "Have you ever slept in a pyramid before?" and "Have you ever slept in a pyramid before?" or "Can you write in hieroglyphic?" The questions were pathetic but I managed to get through them. According to Egypt's history with pharaohs and pyramids have created stereotypes, I don't blame people but I blame media that spread all these stereotypes.  In our generation, people are expected to look or act a certain way.

  
While I was reading, "Superman and me" by Sherman Alexie, I was taught that it is fine to be different. Alexie values reading and writing the most and he doesn’t care about what others say or think about him. He wanted to send a message to his audience that each person should be confident and keep on doing what he or she likes to do for their rest of their life, no matter what it is or how crazy it is. Sherman Alexie pointed out “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night until I could barely keep my eyes open. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes left after I had finished my classroom assignments.” (Alexie 2) He will not fail just because he wants to fit in society or doesn’t want to be judged by others. He is confident and that is what makes him a successful person throughout his life.

We are all different and we shouldn't be ashamed of that. We all come from different places and that is what makes us unique. Stereotypes are like labels, the world slowly started to for feeds us these labels and eventually we all swallow them, digest these labels never ever doubting them...

"We shouldn't judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes." by Queen Rania of Jordan.