I Cried Today

I had thought the country would take numerous years to change into that which we hoped for. All it takes is a visit to Tahrir Square (which I now call Tahrir Republic) to see that it took only four days to change people. It is a revolution of the people, by the people. Like my fellow Egyptians, I too am shocked. Yet for the first time I look upon my country with pride. Many have died for us to have that piece of land in Tahrir that gives us hope for the future.

Tahrir Republic is all that is good about Egyptians.

I cried today. Like many others who watched Wael Ghonim's interview, I cried today. It was a moment that I felt so well. They were tears for a country that could have been. It was not the first time I shed those tears. I often cried for my country when moved by the goodness of its people; we don’t deserve this prison, we don’t deserve this injustice. I did not cry for Wael Ghonim but for the same reasons he did.

When I saw those young beautiful faces of those who died for the revolution I was moved to tears. The reason I cried is because of their smiling faces. They weren’t soldiers, set on spreading their ideologies. They weren’t serious about fighting for some political cause. They were smiling because they loved life. Some seemed to have had a comfortable life. They looked like many I knew who ordinarily would have brushed off the prospect of making our country a better place and sat at a café. They all looked like they would have been happier driving off to a coastal city than walk into danger, into the hands of the tyrants that were sworn to protect us. They all could have stayed home that dreadful but glorious day.

But on 25 January, they decided they must speak up. They would leave the luxury of their comfortable lives and fight for their dignity and ours. They would go to the streets and voice out their woes despite their fear. They would overcome violence with peace. Those ordinary young men and women of this country chose to care; they chose to fight for something great. They chose to fight for our children, for our future.

Those faces on screen, so full of life, are dead for no reason but greed and evil. I look into their faces and I feel like I’ve always known them. They are my friends before I ever got to know them, and I will miss them although I never spent time with them. More than that, I love them all because they loved us all without having met us.

I used to be afraid, now I'm Egyptian