As a teenager living in Europe ever since I was born, one might think that my life is brilliant and that I could have anything I ask for. In reality, the truth doesn’t come anywhere close to it. As long as I could remember, the only glimpse of moments I had in Pakistan were usually during holidays. Even though I lived outside Pakistan, I still call it home.

In the 17 years that I spent here in Europe, I made a lot of friends, learned three languages and embraced the cultures of Germany and Ireland. The truth is I wake up every day feeling isolated, lost, stuck in a country where no one looks the same as me and doesn’t understand my traditions, language and culture.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it is horrible living abroad; it’s just that the feeling of being so secluded and confined from your homeland really starts to mess with you. The fact is when I go back to Pakistan, it is probably the best moments and memories I ever have. I finally get to feel the ambiance of the Pakistani culture. I finally get to see the street vendors serving food on the roadside, motorbikes carrying four passengers and I get to hear the vendors blasting their voices through speakers in hopes that someone would buy something from them, things that would be deemed abnormal in Europe.

It’s true that in Pakistan you are nowhere near as much respected as you are here in Germany and that there are emphatically a lot of things that divide the two cultures. There is a huge gap between the norms and values of these two places. Many turn a blind eye to Pakistan, giving it the status of a third world country full of poverty, crime, minimal opportunities for education and an atrocious healthcare system.

You might probably be thinking what’s there to like about Pakistan? Sure there’s poverty, hunger and a lack of basic human rights, but the thing I love most about Pakistan is the way the Pakistani people strive to overcome this hardship. They put others before themselves, and even though they aren’t obliged, they do their best to cater for each other’s needs. There isn’t a lack of talent, rather an abundance of it. From a young age, they are taught to work for what they want. In my opinion brotherhood and traditional values are the only things keeping the Pakistani culture and tradition alive and I hope it does so in the future. This is why Pakistan will always be a part of me.

Published in Dawn, Young World ,June 10th, 2017