It’s been a month and half here at UBC and I remembered that about a month ago, everyone in the CAPS stream of Global Citizens had to answer the question ‘what (or who) is a global citizen?’, and I could sum that up in fifty words after giving it a bit of thought. However, when I asked myself, ‘what about me as a global citizen?’, a dozen other questions followed that question with intertwined thoughts of my life so far. I feel that I’ve been exposed to many different cultures, religions, social classes, communities in different countries, and I fully believe that they have shaped my identity to a large extent. I think to myself, how and why am I global citizen?

In my fifty words answer to the initial question, I wrote about how a global citizen has a wide perspective combined with empathy. In my opinion, when I think of myself, I do see myself as someone who is empathetic and with a wide perspective because I know I’ve had to break boundaries that were set for me, and also look past others’ boundaries to understand why others do what they do. For most of my life, I’ve grown up in conservative communities, but they’ve also had a gateway to a more “open-minded” part of the community. For example, I grew up in Cairo, which is mostly a conservative city but I went to a British international school there and I could go to bars and clubs because I had the access to that gateway. If I look back to it now, I feel that I switched between the communities when I lived there and kept a positive approach to both ends of the spectrum and, communicate and cooperate with people with the range of mindsets. I think that this exposure to the many different mindsets, beliefs and lifestyles have really helped me broaden my horizon of perspective, but it has also helped me look at the things underneath that and understand people in more depth now.

But going back more to myself, I also asked myself, if I see myself as an individual or more of a representative of a group or groups or a bit of both. And in all honesty, I don’t know it yet. I don’t have a clear idea but I think I’m a part of both because I do represent different communities but I’m also an individual and very different at many levels from the people of the communities that I “belong” to. I don’t have a complete conclusion, but I see myself as a global citizen because of the way my life has turned out to be and the many different influences that were placed upon me and the ones I were open to. But of course there are many other reasons too.

Sania S.