In this period of the year and first time in the states during the holidays (Christmas and New Year Eve), I felt I want to be home, I wanted to feel home, and be with my family. I think it`s a legit feeling because this holidays is mainly about family and friends gathering. Everyone I knew in the states, is traveling to their family, taking vacation to visit family or because some members of their family are visiting them. Clearly, it`s all about the FAMILY.

So I`m on vacation also to celebrate this very new cultural event, and I needed to have a family too.

“You will always have a family wherever you go!”

 

That`s true! During this past weekend (Christmas Holiday), I recognized that I have family and it`s a big family -believe me- ; the Atlas Corps is the new extended family and I truly mean it. Fellows came from DC and all NYC areas to celebrate all together the Christmas Holidays, but the most important was meeting each other and getting to know each other, because we all needed to be with a family.

We gathered in one of the Fellows house, everyone brought food, drinks, snacks, deserts, some of the fellows cooked their own traditional food. We were almost 20 people from Pakistan, India, Palestine, Algeria, Zambia, Russia, Kenya, and Tunisia (Me). Most of us, we were meeting for the first time, but it didn`t seem like that.

We had fun together, we got to know each others more, we shared our experiences during the past months and at some point, we had things in common; we came from different cultures, different environments, but we are all boarding the same boat, trying to figure out and make things work the way it used to be. For that, getting together was the start, by finding our new FAMILY!

 

The Atlas Corps family, now, is our new family, we care about each other, we help each other and we stand for each other.

Visit Atlas Corps website and check applications are open to join the new family: www.atlascorps.org

Happy Holidays!