Went for a haircut after long.
My barber, oh sorry, ‘hairdresser’, was in a jovial mood today. Turns out that his mom was coming for a visit, and so he had taken a leave for two weeks from tomorrow. Also turns out that he is all of 24, which was a revelation.
He is from Syria, and today he was a bit chatty, and nostalgic. He hasn’t been home since the past 7 years, and things aren’t that great there anyway, so it’s tough for him to go back for a long visit, forget about settling there. He works hard to cut hair 6 days a week, around 10-12 hours a day. Can’t afford to get this family here, which would have been ideal.
Got me thinking on how we take such things for granted when we have them. Imagine not being able to go back to your country, staying away because you have to and not because you want to…working hard to make ends meet and a possible upside in a very distant future…meeting family once in 1-2 years because they can’t come for a visit…
These are very humbling experiences. Not because I am a humble person, but I’ve realized that as I started to grow older, I started to appreciate the smaller things in life, being thankful for being given all the opportunities that came my way. Things could so easily have not been this good, like is the situation for those like Burrak (that’s my barber), who are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The lottery of life, as they call it, is won by a few, with the rest struggling on a daily basis, just to life a decent life…
A lottery it is, and it’s humbling that you have been chosen, not because you came up with the winning numbers, but because it just happened. Yes, hard work counts, but I’ve seen that those who struggle, end up working much harder. Some of us won the rightful fruits of this labour.
A chance, that worked in your favor. What’s there to be so proud about?