Salem S. Gharbia | Contributing Writer
After my first full day in Trinity College, the university which I had always dreamt about, I walked through Dublin’s streets on the way to my warm house. During this twenty-minute trip I could feel the buildings, streets, blocks and everything in my way, as though they were speaking to me, telling me about the history of freedom they have witnessed and then I started to think about my own story. Encouraged home with a nice shower of windy rain, I arrived to my room and laid on my bed and started to replay my journey to Trinity College in my mind.
It has been six months since I saw the advertisement for The Usher Award on the Trinity College website. I told myself it was the unique chance to achieve my Trinity College dream. As fast as I could, I prepared all the papers, contacted my professor who supervised me during my PhD studies in Environmental Engineering and then with everything ready I submitted my application A few weeks passed and in the middle of June, a letter informed me that I had gotten accepted for both a PhD and a scholarship offer from Trinity College. This was a wonderful and exciting day and with a renewed confidence I submitted my visa application to the Irish embassy. This takes about five weeks but during these five weeks as I waited, Gaza became a place where there was non-stop grieving, lamenting, keening, wailing, weeping and struggling every moment.
Gaza is the place where no one and no place is safe, your life is at risk all the time.
My hometown is in the heart of Gaza city. During the normal day which is without any bombing, killing, shelling and blood, there is a warm sunny beach near my quiet house. Gaza beach is crowded with happy, naughty and full energetic children in the summer time; there is a lot of peace, fun and playing. But on the other hand and during the bombardment bloody time, Gaza’s children instead of playing on the beach and eating ice cream were killed and their hopes and dreams killed before them. In Gaza there is no minimum limit of resources to survive on; you have to struggle for food, water and electricity. It is very easy to lose your soul just because you want to get a litre of water for you frightened child. You may get killed get killed looking for the little amount of wood you need to collect to cook poor food for your family. Gaza is the place where no one and no place is safe, your life is at risk all the time.
I fool others with my strength and steadfastness while a hidden feeling warns me that my end is yet to come and I could hardly sleep because I could wake up to the worst. I feared that I would become a faceless statistic for a displaced people.
However, under this entire painful situation and in one short ceasefire, I got news that my visa to Ireland had been granted. All this time my Trinity College dream was a thread of hope in my life and without deep thinking, I decided to travel from Gaza to Dublin but in order to make it a reality.
However, I would have to struggle until my feet finally crossed the threshold into Front Square. My journey to Trinity College from Gaza was long and arduous. I arrived at the Rafah crossing into Egypt on 6 August. After four days waiting in a congested and humiliating queue and during a brief ceasefire I was allowed through on 10 August, by showing my Trinity College acceptance letter. It took a further two days of a hard, dangerous and exhausting travel to reach Cairo airport where I then flew through Istanbul and onwards to Dublin, where at last the plane touched down safely on Irish soil.
When I arrived to Dublin airport where the immigration officer asked me about my reason to be in Ireland. With a proud heart, I showed him my offer letter from Trinity College, as if it was a VIP card.
I could not hide the feelings of astonishment on my face as I stepped through the threshold of Front Arch at last.
The last trip was a Dublin bus from the airport to the city center. I had finally arrived to the old prestigious wooden gate of Trinity College. For the first moment, I felt myself in an imaginary world such as Harry Potter’s magic school but then in the back of my mind I could not hide the feelings of astonishment on my face as I stepped through the threshold of Front Arch at last.
Not long after I arrived a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza but I worry that it is not stable; I worry about my family, my friends and my neighbors. I worry that people in Gaza are still in a big prison, under the suffocating and humiliating siege without any access to clean water, electricity or food. I left Gaza during the hard time with my hope that I will come back bringing with me the sufficient knowledge to help my oppressed people there. We have to overcome our situation; we want to live in a dignified, happy life.
But for me, right now I am a PhD student in Trinity College, the place which is a home to some of the most talented minds and most influential researchers in the world. For me Trinity College is the most prestigious and the best place to get knowledge in order to help solve the water crisis in the oppressed Gaza, the place which I left behind me. That will be my next dream.
