A child of two teachers
A writer, a marketeer, and an aspiring photographer
She comes across as very serious with a leave-me-alone attitude.
“I get that a lot. I come here to focus. Laptop, coffee, and ideas. So maybe I give out this image. Same thing at the gym. I cherish my alone time.”
It turns out that this social butterfly takes time to recharge at Starbucks.
Motherhood
She’s a proud mother of a one-year-old daughter. She pulled out her phone and showed me pictures.
“Selena. I like how it rings. Goddess of the Moon. I chose the name before knowing its meaning. Beautiful. This is one of her in a costume.”
At first, she felt it was the most challenging experience ever because it wasn’t planned. Now, she thanks God for her. It was a new and sudden change, as she was not mentally ready.
One day, having a sibling to Selena would be joyful as they don’t want her to be an only child. Nada grew up with two much older brothers; she’s 10 and 6 years their junior. She grew up always seeking someone to play with. Two older brothers did not qualify as playmates. Having friends is different than having brothers and sisters. Especially a sister for a girl.
Teaching is in the family
Teaching is something she might like. If so, she would prefer teaching to an older student audience. At the university level, it would be perfect. Her personality isn’t right for disciplining — sit, stand up, and go out.
“I come from a teaching family,” she tells me. Both her parents are still active in writing and teaching. Her mother was a high school French teacher, and her father was a history professor at the Lebanese University.
How did they meet, I wonder.
Working in marketing and advertising
She started at Université Saint-Joseph, dropped out after two months, stayed at home for a little longer, and then joined Notre Dame University to study marketing and advertising (2002–2006). She worked for three years after that in marketing and events management. The work environment, as well as the 9–5 regimen, was not her thing. Still searching, she decided to pursue graduate studies. A master of arts degree in media studies while working part-time introduced her to journalism and communication arts.
She converges towards her natural place.
She likes writing to complement her marketing and social media expertise.
Her graduate research addressed domestic violence in Lebanon. More specifically, she researched social media’s impact on domestic violence and how it contributed to social change. Her work got her to collect data from the field. She interviewed individuals and non-profits (ex: KAFA.) Social media created awareness, making it less of a taboo to speak out, both for victims and the society with the non-of-my-business attitude.
She reworked the material she did for her thesis, picked up the phone, and called the editor of AnNahar, a prominent Lebanese daily newspaper. He asked her to send the article. Twenty-four hours later, he loved it. She got published.
Swift and positive reinforcement for an aspiring writer. Nice!
And that’s how she started writing about and for causes: domestic violence, eating disorders, and street art.
On writing
She likes to write research-based articles. She loves the process of discovering and learning by investigating. She believes in sharing knowledge.
“Every writer likes to see his work published. In the end, you’re writing to share whatever you’ve done. It doesn’t necessarily have to be published; it could be shared. It’s a nice feeling.”
Even though she prefers specific topics over others and that writing does not come easily, she enjoys it. In my conversation with Nada, she reflected on the techniques and tips that she uses when writing. Everyone has their own approach. For what it’s worth, here’s a glimpse of how she does it:
Read general articles and academic research
Make a sheet with sources and related links
Fact-find
Outline as soon as possible and update as you research
Write impactful title and subtitle at the end
Write directly on a word processor (MS Word)
Use Grammarly for editing at the end
When you can’t look at your manuscript anymore, submit it and move on
Boredom the instigator
As a child, she got bored a lot. So, she played teacher to imaginary students. She’d put them in class, distribute papers, and teach. At some point, Nada, the child, even gave out a warning to her mother. She once asked for a sister or a bicycle to kill boredom. She got a bike. As an adult, Nada worked on learning to be alone. Being by herself shifted from being bored and fearing loneliness to enjoying the alone time.
People change
People who have known her seven years ago would say that she’s a totally different person. For example, her father never expected that she would become a writer. She was the quintessential social butterfly, listening to music constantly and moving everyone to ‘Let’s go out. Let's party.’ Her dad, the professor, was gladly surprised by how she turned out professionally.
“He’s proud and probably likes that we have something in common. It makes him happy.”
She changed her lifestyle in the last few years. She changed jobs, redefined her friendships, lost some, built new ones, and developed new relationships. She was very focused on self-development and did not want a relationship. With time, she got more comfortable with her alone time. Then she met her husband. After the initial dynamics of dating, settling down with him made the alone time even more comfortable.
She believes their interdependence and mutual trust is a healthy thing. They have similar personalities and have little worlds they escape to when needed. He goes hiking alone sometimes. She understands. She does her own thing, and he understands.
Going forward
My short chit-chat with Nada at Starbucks pre-COVID-19 lockdown was a pleasant visit.
Going forward, she doesn’t see herself with a big family. She’s happy with writing but might switch to writing more opinions and creative pieces with less emphasis on academic research. She continues doing yoga, walking, hiking, and other sports. She will also pursue her photography classes as she enjoys taking pictures (more than 6000 photos on her phone). Ideally, she likes to merge visual art with her writing.
“What happened to those imaginary students of yours?” I asked.
“They all graduated.”
