Ahh… I feel like I haven’t put myself out so clearly on this blog for a while. Perhaps you would disagree, but I guess what I find personal is not what you might find personal. You know, the thing is, all my posts are very personal, although they might not be aimed at coming out as that. Although this is just a tag (from 7aki Fadi), I feel like it is the most personal thing I have posted in ages. After writing it, I realized that I miss being personal on this space. Anyhoo…

1. If there was a fire at your house and you could save only one thing (item) what would that be?

Ok that was easier than I thought.
My laptop.
Definitely. All my memories, all my work, and a lot of what I love in life are saved into this little machine *pat it lovingly* (Does that sound pathetic or what? But no, seriously, I cannot even begin to describe how digitized my life is.)

My runner up would be my books. Can I save all of those? I guess the mental image of me getting buried under all my books while trying to save them all from a fire and getting burnt along with them doesn’t look so encouraging, but I really do love my books, and dying beneath them might be the most fantastic way if I had to choose a way to die.

Ok, wait, why are we talking about death?

2. What is the most embarrassing situation you have been in?

Wow, that’s one of the questions that really require too much thinking, especially as I am not much of a shy person, but it is 7:33 AM and I woke up half an hour ago 3 hours after I went to sleep from a nightmare related to this trailer (AH!), so I guess I might sit here and stare at the ceiling and try to figure out what my most embarrassing situation was anyway.

Let’s see *squeezing my brain*

Ah. Ok, got one, but my most embarrassing situation is too embarrassing to mention. It included sort of getting food poisoned while staying at a friend’s house. Let’s just say I have very wonderful, loving friends.

My runner up would be in the 11th grade. I am such a nerd when it comes to school and studying, and I have this incomprehensible desire to get straight A’s or get really embarrassed. I am also much of a doodler, and when I study, I doodle all over the place, including on my body. In the 11th grade, I had a “Macro Economics” final, and typically for someone as airheaded as myself, I went to school without realizing that my hands were scribbled all over. The teacher watching over the test, and who did not know me, thought the symbols were cheat guides, and kicked me out of the exam hall. Of course, it was all resolved after my Economics teacher made clear that no, there is no such thing in Economics called “IBTY” and that Roba is too much of a nerd to want to cheat anyway, but it was such a mess that practically jeopardized my reputation as class nerd.

Third runner up would be sometime in my sophomore year at Jordan University, when I burst out crying in class after the scary professor asked me to read something for the class. Aww.

3. If you can do over a part of your life, what will you change?

Redo? Why? I am actually quite happy with my life, and I think that everything that happened in it happened for a reason, and of course, being the FSM person I am, I do not mean some mumbo-jumbo “ooh, look, stars!” sort of reason, but instead, every incident that happened in my life has definitely shaped the person I am today, and I am happy and comfortable with that person.

Otherwise, if I had to choose for the sake of the tag, I would say that I wish I could change 1 year of my life; the 7th grade. It was such a bad year for me. Thanks to asthma and its medicines, I had ballooned to 80++ kgs, and so my self-esteem was really low, and I was permanently sick and breathless and could not even laugh without regretting it seconds later. I also had to go through a very turbulent time at school as the Saudi Education Ministry (if it could be called that) kept shutting down all the schools my parents would put us in because they were illegal in Saudi Arabia. In the end, we settled in Manarat Al-Riyadh, the school I would graduate from 6 years later and which I’m finally coming to peace with (or not), but man, it was such a nightmare at first. When you’re 12 and keep switching schools once a week, it’s awful cause you keep losing friends, doing really bad with the coursework, and having a really hard time adjusting to everything.
But really, like I said, I wouldn’t change anything, not even that year, because looking back, it was one of the most decisive years in my life. My post-grade-7 existence is a direct contrast to that before it.

Ok, enough. Turn those lights off now.

I will optionally tag Hayat, Faten, Dima, and tab3an tab3an, my darling Hal, who cracks me up.

I am starving, and I feel like having BakeHouse.

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