Petty Envy

My eyes today were really hurting me to the point where the tears were rolling down my eyes from the pain. It’s one of those eye soring days. So I wore my glasses at work hoping to solve a bit of the problem. It did, but that only brought back memories of why I hate my eyes. It is silly what people make out of someone else’s eyes. Are eyes really the main physical attraction that one has towards the other? What would I know? I know nothing!

-> High school. Year 1999 AD. Month, May.

I was not really involved in any activity or gave two shits about my high school. I hated my high school here in Canada. I just couldn’t wait to graduate from the pit hole and leave the place. As a student council activity, they decided to have a popularity survey amongst graduating class. I guess to add it to the crappy year book that I have no clue where it is now. I think someone took it. I was a complete non caring person. I just went to classes and had little association with people at all.

So in my senior Economics class, an Arab girl who “wore” the hijab, she took it off a few weeks later, don’t ask why, was sitting behind me. I never seen or met her before, but she talked to me first knowing I was Arab. I looked like one and I dressed like one. More about the dressing part later. But we were “friends.” It seems Arabs like to be friends with one another. A complete shocker!

Anyways, about that stupid gay ass survey towards the end of year that people filled out; I was reading through it and wondering, “dear lord, do I have to put down names next to these questions?” Such rubbish! So I doodled on the paper to kill time. The row next to me had a bunch of non Arabs. One girl asked me, “Mona Mona! How do you spell your last name?” My last name is very obscure and hard to spell according to the English speaking world. Ehm. I said, “excuse me? Why?”

She said, “we want to nominate you for the girl in our grad class with best eyes.”

I thought to my self, “WTF?”

I said, “fine.. ” I then told her how to spell it so her little clan of friends can hear it as well.

The Arab girl behind me said, “shit.. why you!” She took the survey paper, crumbled it, made a ball out of it, and threw it in the garbage can.

I was in shock. I thought holy crap! What the hell did I do to deserve this, and seriously, what was up her ass?

-> My house. Year 2000 AD. Month, February or March. I remember it was late winter!

A bunch of ladies came to our house with their daughters who apparently are in the same age bracket as me. For me, I was social back then and I wanted to meet new people. Since they go to University with me, then why not. More people to know, the merrier.

I will not say what the nationality of those people were, but they were diverse, and white. Light coloured. If I saw them in the street, I wouldn’t tell they were Arabs.

One of the girls asked me, “God! I never seen a real Arab before!”

I said, “excuse me? What do you mean?”

She said, “Look at you, you are tan, pretty, and you got the Arabian eyes that men die for.”

I said, “huh?”

She said, “Look at your (kohl) eye liner, it goes perfect with your eyes. Like it is made for them. You must get a lot of proposals.”

I said, “ehm no, I am only 19, and I don’t care about proposals, and I don’t think a guy would only want me cause I have Arabian eyes. That is purely ridiculous.”

She said, “aha.. I know. I talk to many guys, and that’s what they are looking for.”

I said, “no wonder you are not engaged yet, you don’t look like an Arab!”

-> University. Year 2000 AD. Month, October or November. I remember it was fall!

I was walking with a bunch of Arab girls heading towards my Computer course lecture, and we were randomly talking about Arab girls and stuff. One of the girls then looked at me and said, “look at you, you emphasize eye liner so much that it is perfect. Why do you want to emphasize being an Arab so much?”

I said, “huh? Are you for real? what kind of question is that?”

She said, “I think you need to stop wearing eye liner. It is too much and grabs too much attention.”

I stopped and said, “excuse me R, what about you? Do you wake up in the morning and you look perfect like that. With makeup and heavy eye liner?”

She said, “no, but I don’t emphasize my eyes only because I am Arab. I have other things to emphasize.”

I said, “I am sorry that I am not perfectly proportioned like you with so many things to emphasize, but I only put eye liner. I don’t have time to wake up, get to University, and look like I am Miss Arab Beauty walking around campus to attract guys.”

That shut her up. Oh well, she got married a year later. She had a lot to emphasize more than her eyes.

Aah.. Arabs… Arabs.. Arabs…

Blah Blah, They said what?