Notes

A Spark of Ignition

The static of the radio crackled like burning wood, she was the light in our eyes. We gathered around her like a fireplace. Listening to the radio was like looking at a vintage photo album of her stories until the radio broke. Nothing was louder for me than the silence of that radio.

We all called my Grandmother “Mama Sameera”. She raised me since infancy because my mother was busy with her PhD studies abroad. I had a different kind of bond with Mama Sameera. I remember her joking about how she was a mother goose that I followed around everywhere. She hinted a lot about my dependence on her, yet I was the one out of all my cousins that she would ask for help to fix her electronic equipment, especially her old antique radio. At the time, I didn’t know how this responsibility would shape me. I remember telling her I didn’t know how to fix radios when she first asked, until I started learning how to and I loved it. Later on, I kept on wishing that she would ask me to fix her radio, I loved the fact that I was doing something I enjoyed for a person I loved.
“Can you fix the radio for me?” is what I wanted to hear all the time, it was all simple tasks that I had to do. The problems were usually simple, such as forgetting to pull the antenna which was kind of funny. Forgetting to replace the batteries, and changing a fried up component which was hard, she laughed as she saw how simple her mistakes were. After fixing the radio we sang Umm Kulthum together, she held a napkin and waved it around just like Umm Kulthum did.

One day, before going to the market, I asked my grandmother if she wanted anything and noticed that she wasn’t feeling well, I made sure to check on her regularly. Her health started to decline day after day, she wasn’t talking like the usual, she didn’t use the radio, she wasn’t active at all. Next thing I know was my grandmother laying on a bed in the hospital. I was shocked to hear such a call and couldn’t believe what I heard. Mama Sameera was diagnosed with a disease that deteriorates her health significantly. When I was at the hospital I saw distress on my big brother’s face and saw the nurses tearing up, I knew she was leaving me. I will never forget the moments we had together and the things she told me. I recall her telling me that she would love to see me graduate, finish college, and even get married. That made me both sad and angry, I really wanted her to venture with me through my journey.

Gloomy years past by and I was still broken, everything went downhill, my grades, my social life, and my health. I didn’t care whether I would reach the end of the tunnel of success or not. I was lost and didn’t know what would happen next, my supposed plan of successfulness vanished and perished. But then, I listen to the radio.

I started to get interested in science again so I joined king Salman Oasis of Science, and there I met my new passion. It looked beautiful and I fell in love with it. I took part in a small robot club, it felt weird because I saw my grandmother there, as if she was asking me to “fix” the robots. That club sparked my engine, it started a chain of curiosity, I wanted to know more about robots, everything interested me. During my stay at king Salman Oasis, our robot group had a problem with one of the robots, it was funny because it had the same problem as the Radio. I told our tutor about the component and he was amazed on how I knew that.

My thirst for knowledge lead me to a scientific summer program, and there I had undiminished passion.
Even though it was exhausting, it surely made me realize what I wanted to be. The program led me to a scholarship program that would help me accomplish my dreams, I filled all the required information with exhilarating happiness, finally I am a click away from going to the United States, I froze staring at the screen, getting flashbacks of all the moments that pushed me to this final phase, as I hover above the submit button, the button clicked by itself or should I say, she did.

I thought that the only thing that stayed with me was her love, all those moments that I didn’t think would be something later on, made me accomplish what I thought was impossible. I hope that she is smiling, looking at me with pride now. That radio is still in my house laying around carrying all the memories that wont be forgotten, her voice, my tears, our time together.