Memoirs of a Saudi Ph.D. student: Don’t sweat the small stuff
When you live abroad, its a fact of life that you will be missing many great family moments, like the arrival of a new niece or nephew, your brother or sister’s graduation and as in my case, missing my sister’s engagement party. Well again, I am a sophisticated Ph.D. student and working for my Ph.D. is far more important than attending parties. But really now, she is my baby sister and now she is engaged and I am here in Sheffield, everyone would have looked glamorous and would have had a great time — except me. I am here minding my own sophistication and running down streets trying to catch the tram before its too late. Well thank God for Skype; it allowed me to attended part of the celebration live from my cold corner of the world.
And because God is fair, we had an unplanned weekend trip to London two days after the engagement party and it felt like a gift for not fussing about not going back to Saudi Arabia to celebrate with my family.
We checked into the hotel and then went to have dinner at a Teppanyaki style Japanese restaurant. And if you have ever been to such a restaurant you will be aware of the consequences: the very strong cooking aromas that will stick to you like glue.
Later, back in the hotel, I was quite sure that the smell dominated and the cool Ph.D. student’s prestige was once again compromised badly.
Getting ready for bed I fetched my cosmetics bag that contains my survival tools. But to my horror I realized that I have forgotten to bring my makeup remover and my essential moisturizer. Just to clarify, people who know me personally know my very limited relationship with makeup. I only need products that make me look awake and healthy looking, and my familiarity with the wide variety of beauty products is equal to my familiarity with mythical creatures. I feel that advertisements that promote day/night/mid day/after tea creams and other cosmetics are targeted to all other women except me. Nonetheless, I need my makeup remover and my moisturizer, and without them how could I remove the remaining kohl from my eyes? I will look extremely scary and my prestige as a sophisticated postgraduate will be ruined once more! The absence of those small products made me panic; what was I going to do to remove the melted kohl that covered most of my face? How can I survive in this dry weather without my favorite moisturizer? In the middle of this nearly catastrophic situation for me, I also felt so pathetic. How could two small insignificant bottles define me and ruin my day? In fact, how many such small items control us, and their absence possibly putting us in awkward situations? I asked myself, how would I allow two lines of kohl control me? Am I really that shallow or helpless?
So, I scrubbed my face with the harsh soap provided by the hotel and tried to ignore the dryness of my skin but I could not ignore the fact that I still felt highly uncomfortable. Our standards of living have risen to a degree that made the absence of small stuff a potential matter of life or death!
Well, there was nothing I could do and I was almost sure that few people would notice my dry skin in the light of day. Yet I felt the pain of separation and realized I was so dependent on that small bottle. Now that’s not cool at all.
As if that was not enough, in the morning I realized that the only head scarf I had with me was the one I wore at the Japanese restaurant and that reeked with that very uncool smell. But I just had to wear it and bear it. I wouldn’t let that ruin my day even if I smelt like a walking Japanese restaurant.
“Oh well Hatoon…” I shrugged to myself “don’t sweat the small stuff.”
@HatoonKadi
