“Is it always on you when you fail? Does the failure define who you are, even if you were
young? Is it always the case?” These are the struggles, my friend Dr. Farah Kalash, lived with
her whole childhood. For the first time, she was open to questions and talked about her bitter
past. She has never told a friend of hers about these painful events.
She was born in France, lived there for 5 years, until her family decided to move back to
Lebanon, in order to reunite with all other members of their family in their beloved country.
When she was 6 years old, her mom suffered a complicated psychological distress, where
Farah’s dad was obligated to put his wife in a special mental health facility, so she could have
her best treatment. For 2 years, Farah was living with her older siblings and father, far away from
her mother.
When asked about her education and how did she manage to study without her mother being
around, she answered that her siblings were always the top students in their class, but she was
not like them at all, since her mother was the one who took care of her siblings’ studies. But,
when Farah’s mom got sick, her dad was trying to manage between his work and Farah’s studies.
Unfortunately, that did not go well, Farah was ranked either 9th or 10th in her class, and her dad is
not taking into consideration what is happening to the family, and how serious is this matter to a
child, so he kept blaming her for being irresponsible and such a failure compared to her older
siblings.
Farah had a poor base in her studies, her basic years in school were unsuccessful, so that affected
her academic performance for years.
Farah reached the 7th grade, and still struggling, her dad threatened her of changing her school to
a public one, if her academic performance do not get better. She knew that he was not bluffing,
and he was serious about that, and here comes the comeback.
In the 8th grade, Farah took her studies very seriously, she studied all day, all night, all week till
reaching her best version. Her grades are getting higher and higher, even higher than all her
classmates, her teachers noticed the progress and they were very proud of her. The first term has
ended, and she got the 1st rank in her class, the principle made all her classmates applaud her, for
her great performance in a short period of time. After that day, Farah’s life has witnessed a better
new chapter.
Farah kept her dedication and set vital goal to reach, which was to stay at the top, so she could be
a dentist, orthodontist to be more specific. She got accepted at AUB, because of her well
performance in high school, where she was a top-notch student. She fulfilled her dream, after she
graduated with distinction and now practicing her favorite job.
For me, Farah is a friend of mine, but after hearing her story, now she is definitely one of my
favorite friends, and I hope all of us to stay dedicated to our goals, and not give up easily.
Finally, she said to me at the end of the interview “If you let people define who you are, you will
never going to get better at what you love.”