If a random person hears the word Lebanon, he either thinks it’s beautiful and full of nature or it’s a desert

filed
with war. It isn’t full of nature but there is a small percentage of forested area, but it’s also not a desert filled with
war. In fact, we are the only Arab country without a desert, and the war was over like 25 years ago. I don’t blame
them if they think that, but this is an inside look from one of its Gen Z citizens.

Now if a zombie apocalypse happened we wouldn’t care, it’s just another every day thing. Compared to what we
have already been through in the past year, a zombie apocalypse isn’t that new nor that weird. I mean a fire, 3
days later a revolution, with endless memes, then out currency lost 25% of its value, then banks take all the
money, then first wave of covid19, currency loses 50% of value and it’s just may 2020. I could go on and on, but
other things happen. Then of course on august 4 2020, at 6:30 pm the 2nd biggest non-nuclear explosion in the
world. Seriously haven’t we suffered enough? Apparently not, because after that 3rd wave of corona cases, schools
started online (and the Wi-Fi here, well good luck), Lebanon gets put on the blacklist of many countries and after
that we can’t buy anything online. Not to mention we have a horrible government that never tried to fix it.

Being Lebanese gives you this built in feeling of never do things to early or else all your hard work is gone, well in
this case in a million pieces. It also gives you the feeling of never hoping too much. People here always say, well it
can only go up from here, and it never does.

Sometimes it’s hard to be proud of our country, or that we are Lebanese. Since the media made us seem like
terrorist. The good thing is us, this generation, Millennials and Gen Z, we have found or voices, we will represent
Lebanon in a way that we want to, not the way that our government wants people to know.

Growing up here, not only there are stereotypes from the media, there are stereotypes that we created for
ourselves. The working stereo type: you can only be either and engineer a doctor or a lawyer (it doesn’t help that
my dad is an engineer my mom is a doctor and my uncle is a lawyer) The Lebanese medicine stereotypes: 7up w
3asret 7amoud (translation: 7up and a squeeze of lemon juice).

I don’t think there is a country that it’s citizens make memes about it more that us. Do you remember the: leysh
3am btebke li2anne mabsouta (translation: why are you crying because I’m happy) meme? Listen, I’ve seen
revolutions and protests, but not memes about them made by people who were already in them.

Corona never did anything to us, because we were already in pieces. Cars were lined up for miles because the
bread’s price was increasing 500 LBP. Have you ever seen a gas pump closed, about a month ago they were open
for a few hours a day. Do you know the fans that are 3 days early to a Miley Cyrus concert, or a new iPhone
release? That’s how people were about the gas shortage.

A lot of Lebanese kids don’t move out their parents’ house even after their 18th birthday. In general Lebanese
people are family oriented. On every Christmas, new year, Easter, Adha families spend them together. We learn to
appreciate these moments from a very young age. Relatives fly out from whatever country they moved to, just to
celebrate with the whole family.

I’m glad to have grown up during this time and place. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything else in the
world (except meeting Miley Cyrus). Lebanese isn’t a race nor a nationality, it’s a life we were lucky to be chosen to
live. Being Lebanese is a part of our genes, is a part of our DNA. No matter how hard it is we should be grateful for
everything good that has ever happened to us.