Waseem was born in Beirut, Lebanon, before the civil war. At a young age, he had a lot of fun with his friends because everything was within proximity to him. When the civil war started, he never really paid attention to it. He and his friends would just have fun even when the tough times occurred. His family didn’t necessarily struggle financially during the war, however, his best friend down the street was eventually killed. For Waseem, his friend’s death never really registered to him. It all happened so fast. The event of his friend’s death caused his parents to make a decision to take a vacation to the United States to visit his uncle for a summer. They thought that the war would be better by the time school was about to start. During the summer, they traveled around the country and visited tourist attractions. Once the summer was over, and it was time to go back to Lebanon, the schools were still closed because the war was ongoing. Waseem’s mother decided to enroll him and his siblings in a public school so they could learn English. At this point, he was in high school. Every year of his life in high school, he thought he would go back to Lebanon, however, the war was getting worse. His family was also struggling financially because they could not work as they did not have a work permit. This caused Waseem’s father to make the hard decision of going back to Lebanon to financially support his family. When Waseem graduated from high school, he thought he would finally go back to Lebanon, but it never happened. Instead, he went to college to gain a bachelor’s degree. He received, what was the hottest degree at the time, a degree in Management Information Systems (IT/Business Degree). The pay was very good, but he had to train for two years before becoming an employee and getting paid a salary. Once he finished training, he wanted to go back to Lebanon, but the war was still continuing, so he decided to start his job in the United States and did great. The company he worked for offered him a green card, and it took two years for him to get it. Once he got his green card, his work and financials were really good but by the time he could go back to Lebanon, the country was in ruins and devastated. The country also wasn’t up to speed with technology, so his degree wouldn’t mean nearly as much as it does in the United States. He realized his life wouldn’t be the same as in America and decided to stay. “It was a really hard decision for me to make. This was a time in my life where I was putting the pieces of my life together.” Today, Waseem lives the American dream, with his wife and four children, visiting Lebanon among other Mediterranean countries every couple of years.