Firam
Firam (noun) a shortcut for Firas Mraiyan (me!!) tri-Decade guy, Sagittarius one, born in the year 1975, in Irbid, in a rainy day at exactly 12:00AM December 19th-December 20th.
Raised as a spoiled kid (the last of the 3angood), I don’t remember much about my childhood, but it was in the golden era of the 80’s in Jordan in which life was simple, love was all over and 3azar habeeb was on every Radio and cassette, and the Jordanian Dinar worthed 3 Dollars!.
In 1988 life had a new face in Jordan, an economical, political and a cultural turnover. People developed new faces too, grumpy ones. Unfortunately these glum faces remain stuck till today, I was part of that too, and still :). I started feeling life is not as easy as it was, the word economy was popular on people’s tongues. Democracy was introduced into the dictionary of the Jordanian words after thirty years of abandonment. All these words were new to Firam. Like everyone else I started reading newspapers and magazines and browse the TV searching for the moral of all things around.
Between all of this I started writing down my thoughts on papers, trying to express my own view for the past and present and what will be in the coming future, all dreams and hopes in my imagination, I was always asking myRAM: “will this ever become true one day?!”.
1990 War atmosphere, Iraq, Kuwait, USA, England…others, all connected in one sentence - The Second Gulf War; the first I lived with. I was fifteen, when I saw lines and lines on bakeries; when every window had a big X tape on, suddenly Saddam became an icon, spirits were ups and downs, people with, people against. Then it all gathered in one feeling; disappointment and a feeling of loss we always used to.
Tawjihi: a phenomenon only known to Jordanians, it is like a ritual everyone must go through, for Firam it was just another dream, maybe a challenge, that I didn’t take serious enough, still I passed it and found myself in J.U.S.T my second home, or was it?!.
J.U.S.T is another strange world in dreamland. Multi-colored community; all colors of Politics, Cultures, Arab and Foreign, Poor and Rich, Islamic and Christian, Extremists and Moderates. Firam lived all these contradictions to find himself in the middle of this vague atmosphere. The spark of the first love touched my heart, staying up all nights in groups studying for exams of materials I never knew they were actually in my schedule!!.
Graduated; Engineering, and packed to Saudi Arabia, first time far from home and family. It was the hardest period in my young life, made me remember the episodes of the past days –childhood, teen, love, friends- my feelings were all confused together and between the longing and loneliness I booked back home.
My first real job was in Jerash Private University; I don’t want to write anything about these four years, I will keep it for Firam. The roads of life led me to where I am now. Capital Bank, Network Security Administrator. I like working there, I feel I can prove myself there and already started to do so.
This is about all I can say about Firam. There is a lot still to write down, who knows, maybe someday I will have the guts to update this.
“We live and die, laugh and we cry. Carry on my friend, life is just a big lie”
