Lives of Youth Around the World 6

Bringing the stories from two different parts of Asia, from two young souls. Enjoy reading!

1: 24, Kurdish Iraqi
I had a lot of dreams and goals in early years of my life. My first dream was to become an artist, I loved drawing and painting, and I had the talent in me. My second dream was being a journalist who travels the world. Needless to say, both of these dreams got destroyed by the society, and not having enough support or motivation to continue following my goals, so I gave up early on without even fighting for them. Right now, I have one goal and that’s to be happy with what I ended up with and what I have got right now and I do appreciate it all. My support right now is my better half and some of my friends and family. The only difficulty I have is facing daily life and to continue with the everyday life routine because it’s something I never wanted to happen to me STUCK IN THE ROUTINE. In a way that nothing excites me anymore, everything is just average. I don’t have enough support from my family and freedom to accomplish my goals. It’s really hard to think about something I love about my life here because I have always found it difficult to fit in the lifestyle here. But the thing that I like is my city is better than most places in my country. The mentally of the people living here is what I would like to change but don’t see that happening anytime soon, to be honest, if ever. Life is hard in this community because everyone thinks they have the right to intervene, control or judge the way you live your life. You don’t have the freedom to express yourself as a person which eventually will kill your personality and you will be a soulless human being just passing days and waiting to die and that’s what I see in people every day.

2: 21, Asian

My dreams are to become a professional writer and astrologer. I want to travel the world.  I’m still struggling to achieve my goal of being a writer. The hardest part is not getting any kind of support from my family for following my dreams, they think I’m going crazy. As for points that can make it easier for my dreams to come true, I don’t think so. I think if you want to achieve your goals, you have to work hard for it. It takes time and a lot of effort. And of course support, which I don’t get. I used to live in a big city, where life is complicated, and kids my age think more about having fun. Well, some kids here in a small town village also think the same. But the thing about living in a small town village is that life is simple. Although it sucks because there are no bookstores here or even public libraries. What I don’t like about my society is corruption, it sucks. This village deserves better. Life is simple here. Easy in a sense that you can plant vegetables in your backyard, you can ask for fish from fishermen. But hard in a sense that work here is limited, you can’t make a profit.