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=> My Essay

My Essay
Posted by Dalale (Guest) - Wednesday, September 1 2004, 8:07:49 (CEST)
from Canada - Windows XP - Internet Explorer
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Hi Peter,

Here is my Essay for the contest. I hope I’m kicked out of the contest for posting it here... because I don't want to be part of it anymore....because... you see Peter.. I supposedly cannot write on my own and I force people to write for me.... as I forced Shushan every night, I forced her to stay up every night all week...and she lost some very important people in her life because of "me" and because I forced her to make up all this stuff about me in the essay......so i applied to this contest, really I let shushan "write" it for me, good friend Shushan "wrote" it for me...... what do you say? Don't they kick people out of contests who "let" people write for them???? Can you believe what a wonderfull nice person Shushan is..she wrote this whole essay just for me...

A.Mikha Windsor Canada,

Section 2: Essay

I am an Assyrian, yes a living breathing Assyrian..

Shlama ow Shlomo, my name is Abbey Mikha, and I am an Assyrian; a living, breathing Assyrian. I was born in the "Land of Cedars", the land where Gilgamesh went to fight Humbaba in the "Epic of Gilgamesh". My ancestors hail from Mesopotamia, specifically a land named Assyria, where in its southern part the walls of Uruk once stood, built by the epic king named Gilgamesh. As in Gilgamesh’s life, there were many turning points in my twenty-three years on the earth, and the crucial turning point as an Assyrian, at the age of 10, was when my family moved to Canada. This is when I first discovered the Assyrian community and the modern Assyrian realm. What being Assyrian means to me is to be alive in every sense of the word “living”; to honor my ancestors as I honor my parents, my fellow Assyrians, and sincerely spread awareness and enlightenment, knowledge and understanding, respect and gratitude for my ancestors, their literature, and my Nation and all of its combined achievements and contributions in our past, as well as our present, and in our future. There are many things I want to do to help preserve my Assyrian Identity and Nation, but primarily the two most important things to me are; to never let go of that which is ingrained in me, and secondly to never shy away from accomplishing for my Nation everything which is within my power.

Before moving to Canada and before my Assyrian “turning point”, I lived in Germany, a country my family moved to when I was two years of age. When I was ten years of age my family received papers to move to Canada and here is the "turning point" in my life as an Assyrian. In Canada for the first time in my life, I met the modern day Assyrian Community, and here is where I discovered the modern Assyrian realm. My love for an Ancient people turned into a feeling of responsibility and commitment towards a modern Nation, which is living in Diaspora, and amalgamating into other cultures. To this day there is a bond between my ancestors and I. This bond was inspired long ago, a pact of loyalty woven into my heart through their words, which I read as a young girl. They have kept me company throughout the years, as a youth growing up in Germany and in Canada, in Diaspora longing for the dream of home. These Ancient thoughtful people thought about their descendants, and they cared enough about all of us to write down on clay tablets their thoughts, their dreams, their beliefs, and their experiences. They advise us through their stories, they share with us their experiences, and to this day and forever I will consider them part of my family. Magnificent ancient Assyrian people they were, who once lived and breathed on this earth, as you and I do today, in a distant land, my home.

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t feel the pride associated with my Assyrian heritage, and I have always wanted to reach out to my Nation and find out how to help to ensure the survival of our heritage. In the last ten years I have been building thoughts concerning the resurrection of the Assyrian Culture. My main goals consist of finding solutions and getting rid of stumbling blocks, as well as working on the ascertainment of the most effective strategies to enable the Assyrian Nations progression, economically, in the global community, and even spiritually in our Assyrian community. I would like to take part in finding ways to achieve unity and be part of the solution rather then part of the problems, which our Nation struggles with today. There is also an aching in my heart, for the brave souls who have not abandoned our homeland. I admire these people and want to take part in helping them. I would also like to take part in instilling in our youth the devotion I felt toward my Nation as a young girl, and now as a young adult, hopefully helping them carry the Assyrian Spirit into future generations. I started to feel the pride associated with my Assyrian heritage at a very young age, as I diligently read of the Assyrians in as many books as I could find. I was introduced to Assyria by the literature written of our renowned ancestors, and their illustrious cities by writers such as Sir Henry Layard, Samuel Noah Kramer, Rev. Dr. William Wigram, and others. One of my favourite books to this day is Sir Henry Layard’s “Excavation of Nineveh”, which memorized me as young girl and even today. I grew up reading the stories of Ashurbanipal, Esserhaddon, Sargon I and Sargon II, Shumirum, Gilgamesh, and many others. These were my Nation as a young girl growing up in Germany and Canada far away from home, and they were my pride associated with my Assyrian heritage which I felt very early in my life, to the point where I boasted to my teachers as a young girl that, "I am a granddaughter of Esserhaddon" a phrase they may always remember when thinking of me.

To be Assyrian means so many things to me. It is to feel the zeal of life in your soul. It means to defy time, to be spiritually in tune, mentally aware of numerous amounts of events, which have occurred on the Earth from the beginning of civilization until today. It means to be educated in the principles of life, and curious as well as aware of the wisdom of long ago. To be Assyrian means to be civilized, to be creative, and to know that it is possible to sing the tunes of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, all part of one harmonious tune. To be Assyrian means to ponder about the past but never drown in it, rather reflect the past into the future, to realize that our greatness lays not only in our past, but also in our future. To be Assyrian means to be dear to the heart of God, and near to the time he created humankind. To be Assyrian is to be unified, aware that we can accomplish anything when we work together, when we put our differences aside and concentrate on our similarities. To be Assyrian means to stand up for our human rights and be politically active wherever Assyrians live. To be Assyrians means not only to believe in the promised highway prophesized in the Bible, but also start working for it by building little bridges between one another, from one home to another home, and from one person to another person. To be Assyrian means to take no sides when there is a situation, which presents difficulty, uncertainty, and perplexity within our Nation, rather be one of the ingredients for the solution, to be a peacemaker, to unify our churches and unify our people. It means to be courageous in times of great adversity, to consider and be ready to return to our homeland if it is to the benefit of our Nation and People, and to be less concerned with the self and more concerned with the whole. To be Assyrian means to work for the welfare of our people left in Iraq, some of which have in the last few months fled our homeland, fearing for their lives as five of our Churches were bombed. To be Assyrian is to be proud of whom we are, but to put pride and ego away when it is the problem and not the solution. An Assyrian is a man, a woman, a child, a mother, a father, a priest, a politician, a doctor, an artist, a lawyer, an engineer, a student, an athlete, a human willing to work for his or her Nation, and find solutions to the problems which the Assyrian Nation faces today.

The ancients must have known as we know today, that land which is continuously farmed needs it’s rest, yet their are Assyrian Nationalists who never get a day of leisure. I’ve heard a saying before which says that these individuals are “like the light on a candle, which burn themselves for the Assyrian Nation”. We all need to share the workload with these individuals, so our Nation’s brightest candles don’t burn out. I cannot promise anything less then to always strive to help my Nation as much as these Assyrian Nationalists did in the past, and are doing today. At times I think that the Assyrian Identity is so ingrained in who I am, that I am not afraid of loosing it, because I feel it is as a part of me as my heart is; it is who I am as surely as every breath I take keeps me alive. Nonetheless, there are many ways to preserve the Assyrian Identity that I would and could help in. One of the ways is to follow in the footsteps of my Ancestors and pass on my thoughts and experiences through my writings. Literature is one of the most effective ways to help preserve the Assyrian identity within our youth. I know this from experience because I fell in love with the Assyrian Legacy as a young girl through literature, written about my ancestors, and translations of the words of my ancestors. The children of Assyria may also want and need something which they could relate to, which they in a sense could fall in love with, and which could show them that even though they are living in Diaspora, they still have Assyrian qualities within them that are indestructible.

I have illustrated in the above paragraphs the turning point in my life as an Assyrian, the time I started to feel the pride associated with my Assyrian heritage, what it means for me to be an Assyrian, and what I will do to help preserve my Assyrian Identity. The turning point in my life as an Assyrian was when my family moved to Canada at the age of 10, since this is when I truly discovered my Assyrian Nation. The pride associated with my Assyrian heritage was felt at a very young age, growing within in my soul blossoming into sincere love for my heritage. To be an Assyrian means many things to me, among them being a dove of peace from Nineveh, bringing comfort to a Nation, trying to help heal it's wounds, working for it's survival, and witnessing it's cultural revival once more. What I will do to help preserve my Assyrian Identity is many things; among them keep writing to eventually share a novel with the children of Assyria, and my fellow Assyrians. I always felt a passion for the Assyrian Culture within me; surely it is a gift from my ancestors, I feel that it is so. In the past few months I have even sensed that the invisible seasons of time are changing, and that there is new hope. I sense it is the season to plant seeds, renewed seeds in our garden, seeds which will grow in the heart of the children of Assyria, so that they can be assured of a better tomorrow, for themselves, and our Nation. Seeds of unity, goodwill, education, respect, love and concern for one another are all things, which last beyond forever. We need to become as wise as Gilgamesh in his quest for immortality, then the dream, which was Assyria, which our Ancient Kings dreamed of, will become a reality again today, and once revived become immortal as “The Epic of Gilgamesh”. All we need is to diligently work for our dreams, consider them long term goals which we can reach by creating short term goals which will lead us to the long-term ones. We need to work together, today, at this moment in time.



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