My Most Prized Possession

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I asked my father for a $2 Tamagotchi. It was the toy in season at the time, and my cousins were not very big on sharing theirs. Who can blame them? You put in so much time and effort growing it and taking care of it only for an amateur like me to come along and destroy everything. But I digress.

My father's reaction was not one that I expected. In true working class "do you have McDonald's money?" fashion, he told me that the next day I can go look for a job and buy whatever I wanted with my own money. It was summer break from school, so I did just that.

That seemingly insignificant moment in time changed my life forever. The next day, I woke up, had breakfast, got dressed and went out. I went from store to store and shop to shop in my neighborhood asking if they needed help. The first place to say yes was a music store.

I dusted and wiped all the cassettes and CDs, I rearranged the magazines, and I swept the floor. Those were all skills that I learned from helping my mother clean the house on a biweekly basis. As a side note, my mother still claims that I was the best at it among my siblings.

At five o'clock, my new boss told me that I can go home. Although the store stayed open well past midnight, I was not needed after 5, so I went home. At dinner, my father asked about what I ended up doing, and I told him. He told me that I should quit the next morning, because he did not want me working at a music store for religious reasons. So, the next morning, I showed up for opening and quit.

I sent the rest of the day looking for other work, until I stumbled upon an auto-repair shop. They needed help, and I was available. In that job, I learned so much. I learned about the incredible feats of strength that my body was capable of, I learned how to take apart a whole engine and clean it, and I learned how much fun air compressors are!

Air compressors are so much fun!

Most importantly, that job was my first exposure to the real world. It was my first interaction with people who were not in my family or my school. I learned how clients preferred to deal with one of the bosses instead of his brother, because he had a way with people. I learned that I can be trusted, even as a child, and that I can handle such trust. I learned to trust myself and to ask questions when I was unsure about what I was doing. I learned how important clear communication is within a team and how dangerous the opposite is. I was a boy working on cars I had only dreamed about owning, and I was learning a lot.

I loved that job, and I woke up every morning excited to go to work. My mother, on the other hand, was not happy with the oil-stained clothes and the grease I was bringing home every day for weeks, and she suggested that I look for another job. So, the next morning, I thanked my bosses for all that they have taught me, apologized for having to leave, and I quit.

The next job I found was at a carpentry and upholstery workshop. They made and built furniture for some of the top furniture showrooms and interior designers in the country. At some point, I even helped load a shipping container full of furniture that I had helped work on for export. I worked there for three summers.

In that job, I discovered my love of wood and carpentry, and I learned about the gratification that comes from building something with your own hands. In that job, I also learned that the best employees are not always the most valued. I learned that if you specialize and become exceptional at something, then you make yourself invaluable. I learned that the most foul-mouthed people are the most honest. And I learned how to deal with bullies. I will only explain one of these lessons, and it is probably not the one you expect.

My best friend at work was an older hearing-impaired man. He kept to himself and was exceptionally good at what he did. He came in in the morning, worked until closing time, then he left. Other workers would pull pranks on him (and not just him), but he was more than able to dish it back. But that is beside the point.

When we got an order... he was king!

In our little workshop, most of the trade masters had the same set of skills. They all know how to do the same things to the same standards, but my friend had them beat in one specific way. He was the only one in the whole place who knew how to build and upholster a recliner. When we got an order for recliners, he was king. His workload got wiped clean and reassigned to other workers, he could come and go as he pleased because he only had the one project to work on, and whenever workers had free time, they would gather around and watch from a distance to learn from him. In that workshop, every last one of us was replaceable, but not my friend.

I will fast forward because I can go on forever speaking fondly of those days, but that is not why you are reading this.

At 16, I got the chance to apply and go on a cultural exchange program to the US. I believe it was the confidence and interpersonal skills that I learned on the job that helped me score that opportunity. That opportunity later fed into my getting a full scholarship to pursue my undergraduate degree at the American University in Cairo (AUC). A privilege that neither I nor my family could have afforded without a scholarship.

It was at AUC, and because of my scholarship, that I discovered leadership training. I had no idea that the field even existed or that someone can make a career out of it. I fell in love with it because it gave me the space to teach so much of what I had learned. Leadership is heavily interpersonal, and the interpersonal was my domain.

"Get to the Tamagotchi already!"

I'm getting there, but context is important.

Growing in my role as a leadership and soft skills trainer completely changed the way I dealt and viewed the world. It made me an active listener, an empathetic friend, and a consistent role model.

I never cared for being a role model. People who truly know me know that I relish being the odd man out. I love being different and would never want others to take that away from me. But... Those who truly know me, know that I have younger siblings that I love and treat as my own children. Those who truly know me understand what kind of life I want for them and what kind of people I want for them to become. So, the role model thing makes sense. Also, if you know me at all, you know that I have been living away from them for all of my adult life (I turned 18 a few days before I flew out to Cairo). I have lived abroad all of my adult life in pursuit of better prospects and greater things so that I can support my siblings (read children) on their journey of becoming who they are. Although I'm practically a stranger to them, due to the distance, we're closer than your ribs are to your chest, and we're thick as thieves.

Last year, my sister and my younger brother came to me complaining about how impossible it is to shop for gifts for me. What do you get someone who practically has everything they can possibly want? I laughed, thanked them, hugged and kissed them, and told them I did not want anything; that it's the thought that counts, and I already got that. They did not like my answer.

A year later, they got me a Tamagotchi!!!

In 20+ years of me working and getting paid, I did not think to buy a Tamagotchi. In 20+ years of growing and learning and becoming myself, a Tamagotchi was not even close to being on the list of things I cared about. But the Tamagotchi they got me was an infinity times better than any Tamagotchi I could have ever wanted.

They might tell you that I'm reading too much into this, but I disagree. This Tamagotchi is a testament to who I am as a person. It is a testament to all the hard work I have put in and all the growth I've done. It's a testament to the kind of presence I have and the role model I have become. It's a testament to all the love that they have for me, despite almost two decades of distance and irregular communication. They could have gotten me a card. They could have bought me an engraved lighter, a business card holder, a tie, a pair of funky socks, but they did not. They wanted to give me something that I've always wanted but never had. If that is not proof enough that I'm on the right track, I don't know what is.

And that concludes the story of how a hunk of plastic with basic components has become my most prized possession.

Thank you for reading.