When the Dream Changes
Chapter One :
In a narrow alley of the city, where the cries of street vendors mingled with the groans of crumbling walls, Ameer was born .
His arrival into the world was not an occasion to celebrate — just another addition to a family worn thin by poverty and eroded by time like an old stone under relentless rain .
Ameer grew up in a rented house that barely shielded them from the heat of summer or the chill of winter. A place that offered neither safety nor stability . His father, once a hard-working man, had been crippled by illness. No longer able to work, he became a burden to the very time he used to race against .
His mother was a patient woman — stitching dignity with threads of endurance, hiding her pain behind a faint smile so her children wouldn't collapse before their time .
Amid all this darkness, a small dream began to flicker in Ameer's heart: to become a lawyer .
He saw in the law a weapon to fight injustice, a path that could change his family's bleak reality .
One evening, he told his mother :
I’ll defend the poor, the wronged, the people no one hears ”.
“ >
She rejoiced — not only at the dream, but at the light that began to shine in her son’s eyes .
Ameer studied hard, excelled in his classes, and despite the harsh circumstances, made it to university . He carried an old bag, but also a heart full of faith . Every step was a challenge, but he pressed on . He would whisper to himself :
“ > It’s okay to suffer now… one day, I’ll become something ”.
But life had other plans .
As time passed, the burdens grew heavier: tuition fees, living expenses, rising rent, and his parents’ inability to provide even the bare minimum .
1 of 1
He saw his mother sell what little jewelry she had left, saw his father swallow his pride day after day — and Ameer began to feel that his dream no longer belonged to him alone. It had become a heavy weight on the ones he loved .
One cold night, Ameer sat on the rooftop, staring at the silent sky, whispering to himself in a hoarse voice :
“ > What use is a degree if it can’t feed the hungry ?
What’s the point of being a lawyer if my father has no medicine and my mother no home ”?
That night, the dream didn’t die — but it changed .
He no longer longed for courtrooms or suits, but for four walls and a roof that wouldn’t tremble at a landlord’s knock .
His dream became a simple home — one that would repay his parents, shelter them from humiliation, from eviction threats, from prying eyes .
From that moment, his path changed .
He left university — not out of weakness, but out of loyalty . He began chasing any chance to travel abroad, hoping to escape the tight circle he was trapped in .
He submitted his papers to dozens of offices, waited, got scammed, lost hope — again and again . But he never gave up .
For three years, he fought bad luck, moving from office to office, each time telling himself :
“ > Maybe this time ”…
Chapter Two : The Struggle for
Survival
When Amir’s feet touched the land of exile, his heart fluttered with hope, hidden beneath the exhaustion of travel and the longing for home . He arrived in a country he only knew through travel brochures and the promises that echoed in his mind like a spell, saving him from an unbearable reality .
His job was nothing more than hard labor in a small shop, long hours, and a meager salary barely covering his basic needs . The work was exhausting, the exile harsh, and the distance from his family felt as heavy as mountains .
But Amir believed that patience is the key to relief, and that this humble beginning was the first step towards a bigger goal . Every night, after finishing his shift, he would sit alone in the narrow room, open his old notebook, and sketch plans to buy that house he had always dreamed of .
However, things didn’t go as he had hoped . Delayed salaries, changing work conditions, and neglect from his employers . He tried saving every penny, but couldn’t . Life drained him of everything, adding nothing but the weight of sorrow to his chest.
A year passed, and his work contract ended . It wasn’t renewed, and no other opportunities seemed to appear on the horizon . He was torn between staying unemployed or returning to his homeland with nothing but disappointment .
He decided to go back, carrying the wound of failure and the burden of disappointment in his heart . He returned to his homeland, but he wasn’t the same as before . He found his family waiting for him, their eyes filled with hidden tears, tears that were well-contained in front of him . They didn’t ask about the journey, only about his well-being .
Amir returned without the house key, without a completed degree, and without the dream of becoming a lawyer— a dream that had faded with the first harsh blow of reality .
He worked, searched, knocked on employment doors, and sent his resume, but found no opportunity to ignite his hope .
One night, he went back to the roof of the house, the place where his first dream was born and transformed .
He looked up at the sky and whispered quietly : “ I no longer want to be a lawyer … All I want now is to buy a house … A house that protects me and my family from the cruelty of rent … A house that calms my heart and restores my dignity ”.
He smiled despite the bitterness of reality and knew deep down that the battle wasn’t over yet, and that hope, even if small, never dies .
The end of one beginning
And so, amidst the shadows of absence and frustration, a new hope is born. Amir is ready to write the next chapters of his life, to fight for himself and for those he loves, facing a relentless fate .
Until finally — the chance came .
A modest job contract in a faraway country, with a salary barely worth mentioning — but to him, it was a lifeline . He hugged his mother goodbye with a heart full of pain, embraced his father and whispered:
> “I’ll come back… with the key to our home ”.
They nodded silently, not quite believing — but they let him go, because hope, even if false, was better than waiting in vain