Chapter 0: Egypt

My stay in Egypt lasted ended up lasting 24 days. I wish I had been more diligent to write more about my experience. I am now flying out to Beirut, which will be my home for the next few weeks.
I don’t have a particular agenda writing this post. It’ll mostly be random thoughts that pop in my head around my experience thus far.
- It’s not as scary I thought. Not even close. The thought of leaving my job at Twitter and leaving the country with no plan was daunting to me and it took me months to build up the courage to do it. I was particularly worried about waking up in the morning and face the hard fact that I don’t know where life is taking me, that I don’t know what I am doing, that I am wasting my time, that I have no job, that I gave up my career, that I no longer have a paycheck, etc etc. But, having done it, it doesn’t feel that bad at all. It's actually quite exciting - at least for now.
- I am very very glad to have made it to Egypt at this time. I was very fortunate to visit my grandmother - twice - prior to her death two weeks ago. It gives me a lot of comfort and peace that I cared for her and stayed close till the last minute, as painful as it was. There were a number of deaths in my family circle over the last few weeks, and each one was a stronger reminder for me that, in the grand scheme of things, nothing matters. And, as such, nothing ought to be taken seriously.
- I really enjoy being close to family. Even though the cultural differences between us had grown over time, I really enjoy being around them more regularly. I want to keep that in my life. I don’t want to always be away as I have been the last nine years.
- I love my circle of friends in Egypt. They are all forward thinking, ambitious, working on interesting projects, and are super fun to hang out with.
Lebanon will my first “experiment” post the stable days of San Francisco. It’ll involve exploring a new part of the Middle East and doing work that I suspect I would deeply connect with. I’ll share more details soon. I’ll leave this post at that - plane is landing!

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