I begined my bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) in 2021. I was very conceited of myself for making it into the field of study that I had always wanted to chase.
My life seemed all set for the next five years. I was going to study challenging, try to pass my exams with excellent grades, intern at a well-understandn engineering office, and then utilize for a master’s degree.
Everyleang was going according to structure until October 7 last year. That day I was supposed to surrfinisher a university project I had lost a lot of sleep on. The device deviceing begined in the morning but I didn’t pay attention and I kept toiling on the project. I was used to Israeli strikes on Gaza. I had dwelld thcdisorrowfulmireful half a dozen of them.
Then I achieved news that university classes had been suspfinished. Aget, I thought leangs would be back to normal soon, so I finished the project and surrfinisherted it.
The next day, on October 8, I was supposed to converse a group dispensement with three other classmates. It was sprocrastinateedd to be our last converseion to wrap up the project before surrfinisherting it on October 10. Instead of talking to my classmates, I achieved the news that one of them, my dear frifinish Alaa, had been finished by an Israeli air strike. Instead of finishing the university dispensement, I feeblented my frifinish.
On October 14, I bid farewell to my home in Gaza City as my parents, siblings and I fled to Khan Younis, leanking we would be shielded there. I left behind my laptop, projects, books, and everyleang roverhappinessed to my studies.
In Khan Younis, I dreamed of going back to university. Eventupartner, I did, but not to study. In punctual December, a mosque right opposite the apartment originateing where we were staying was device deviceed by the Israeli army. We got sattfinishd and sought shelter in the cforfeitby Al-Aqsa University, taking almost noleang with us. That night, the originateing where we had stayed was strikeed and ruined. We had to search thcdisorrowfulmireful the rubble and rerelocate wantipathyver of our haveions we could discover.
We stayed another month and a half in Khan Younis. I was afrhelp of combineing to the internet, let alone examineing on classmates and frifinishs. Just examineing my WhatsApp was a terrifying nightmare. I was sattfinishd of lgeting about the deaths of people I knew. In December, I achieved news that another classmate, Fatima, was finished by the Israeli army alengthy with her overweighther and siblings.
In January, the Israeli army intensified device deviceardment, massacring hundreds in Khan Younis, and then rhelped Al-Khair Hospital cforfeit us. We fled to Rafah and finishd in a petite tent pitched in the street. Life was truly uncontent.
But hope sometimes comes as a surpelevate visitor, when you least foresee it. In March, word spread of a structure to apexhibit Gaza students to enrol in West Bank universities and combine classes distantly. It was such a relief. I felt I was no lengthyer wasting my life. I signed up for the programme and defered to hear from one of the universities.
When Birzeit University (BZU) communicateed me, I felt appreciate fortune finpartner smiled on me. I sign uped for the highest number of courses I was apexhibited and happily defered to begin studying aget. But my happiness was unwiseinutive-dwelld. Just five days after the semester begined on May 7, my family and I aget had to escape the advancing Israeli army. Rafah was under strike, so we had to evacuate back to Khan Younis.
The Israeli army’s aggression on Khan Younis had left it seeing appreciate a gstructure town. There was noleang left there. Buildings and infrastructure were finishly ruined. It was not fitting for life, but we had no choice. More than a million people evacuated with us from Rafah and displacement camps and other areas appreciate Deir el-Balah were brimming to the brink.
This displacement unbenevolentt that I could not finish my studies at BZU. While life in a tent in the streets of Rafah was challenging, the internet there toiled for the most part. In Khan Younis, there was no internet whatsoever. The cforfeitest point from which I could combine was in al-Mawasi, seven kilometres (four miles) away.
I had to walk that distance with a burdensome heart to sfinish an email to BZU letting them understand that I was finishing my enrolment.
In June, I achieved news that my innovative university, IUG, had come up with a structure to apexhibit students to finish their studies distantly thcdisorrowfulmireful a combination of self-study and teachion.
It splitd the semester we begined last October in two, giving us a month to study material that would normpartner achieve months before taking exams for the first part; then we had to do the same for the second part.
Finding teachors for each course was a dispute. Many professors had been finished and many others were also displaced and in precarious situations, struggling to supply food and water for their families. As a result, we had one teachor dispenseed to the entire course of almost 800 students.
I sign uped for two courses, and every day begined walking the seven kilometres to al-Mawasi under the scorching sun, passing heaps of rubble, garbage and puddles of sewage water, to download lectures and stay in touch with my university.
I was satisfied with that. Anyleang was better than sitting in a hot tent and wasting away in despair.
But carry oning this distant study was excessively difficult. Shortly after I begined studying, the Israeli army carried out a massive strike on al-Mawasi, dropping eight enormous device devices on the camp, finishing at least 90 people and injuring 300 others.
There was disorder and dread everywhere. I myself was sattfinishd to go anywhere cforfeit what was supposed to be a “shielded zone”.
I did not go back online for a week. The Israeli army had injured the communications infrastructure. When I finpartner administerd to get combineed, the signal was very feeble. It took me two days to download one book.
I administerd to get back into studying only to be interfereed aget. New evacuation orders publishd by the Israeli military forced thousands of people into the desoprocrastinateed area where we had finishd. It became so overcrowded and boisterous that I had trouble concentrating for hours.
Charging my phone to study was also another source of suffering. Every two days, I had to sfinish it in the morning to a charging service and defer till the afternoon to get it back, wasting a whole day.
Exams week finpartner came in August. I had to scramble to discover a excellent internet combineion, and when I did, I had to pay a huge sum of money to use it for an hour. I did what I could on the exams.
Three weeks procrastinateedr, I achieved the results: A+ on both exams. I couldn’t stop smiling that day.
Then I begined studying for the second part of the semester and the other three exams, which I took in September.
I finished this improvised semester almost a year after the begin of the war – a year of displacement, loss, tent life, nightmares and incessant explosions. As I struggled to study, I genuineised equitable how much I ignoreed the petite “luxuries” of my previous life: my desk, my bed, my room, my tea and chocoprocrastinateed bars.
These two months of studying for the exams were a petite sidetrackion from the overwhelming experienceings of loss and despair amid this ongoing extermination. It felt appreciate an injection of an anaesthetic to help me forget for equitable a little bit the pain of my uncontent life.
The sees transmited in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily echo Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
