Nedaa Tawfeek
How I Shifted from a Dreamer to a Survivor then to a Supporter
I didn’t grow up chasing dreams.
I grew up preparing for them.
Learning was my escape, my rebellion, my quiet way of saying:
I will be more.
At school, I chose English—not because it was easy,
but because it felt like a bridge.
A bridge out.
A bridge forward.
By the time I reached university,
I wasn’t just studying.
I was working.
Carrying myself.
Protecting my excellence like it was fragile glass.
Because behind every “honors” certificate
was a promise—
to my mother,
to the girl I used to be.
After Graduation, Silence
Honors didn’t come with directions.
A translation degree in my hand,
and a thousand questions in my head.
Where do I go?
Who needs me?
What am I supposed to become?
So I did the only thing I knew how to do:
I kept learning.
Courses. Trainings. Skills.
I said yes before I felt ready.
I wasn’t lost.
I was forming.
I Became Everything Before I Became Myself
I wrote proposals.
I marketed ideas.
I translated words.
I taught language.
I trained people.
I was many things—
until one of them finally looked back at me and said:
You belong here.
Marketing didn’t just give me a job.
It gave me proof.
Proof in numbers.
In growth.
In impact I could see, touch, measure.
For the first time, my work spoke louder than my doubts.
Then War Spoke Louder Than All of Us
War doesn’t ask what you’re building.
It just takes.
Home.
Routine.
Safety.
Certainty.
I was displaced.
Disconnected.
Trying to work with unstable internet and a heavier heart.
Some days, survival was the full-time job.
But I kept going—
not consistently,
not perfectly,
but faithfully.
Because stopping felt like letting the war win twice.
Arabic Found Me Back
Somewhere in the middle of chaos,
people from other countries asked me to teach them Arabic.
So I did.
And suddenly, I wasn’t just explaining words.
I was holding culture.
Identity.
Meaning.
Teaching didn’t just reconnect me to language—
it reconnected me to purpose.
From Holding On to Holding Others
Then came the role that changed the tone of everything.
Youth Project Coordinator.
From youth. For youth.
Every day, I don’t just manage tasks
I witness potential.
I grow with people who remind me of myself.
This is where the shift happened.
I stopped seeing myself as someone who made it through.
I started seeing myself as someone who makes space for others.
Where I Stand Now
I’m no longer just a dreamer.
Dreamers imagine.
I imagined—
then I survived—
and now I support.
I build.
I share.
I hold doors open.
Because the journey didn’t break me.
It reshaped me.
And this time, I’m not walking alone.