Transcriber: Alwaleed Abdeen Reviewer: Mualla Abdalsalam
Everyone, good afternoon.
OK, you see from the age of 5 years old
I thought I had my priorities set straight;
These included: video games,
Japanese animation, thriller, action movies.
As an Introduction I was simply a tomboy.
Why was I a tomboy?
You see I was blessed with 3 brothers.
I watched them talk I watched the walk
I watched them deal with life and I simply followed their lead.
I remember I used to hate wearing pink puffy dresses,
the color pink made me nauseous, dresses weren't my thing.
And I remember my mother god bless her,
she would come to me almost every week
with a dozen of pink and puffy dresses
and she would kneel on her knees, beg me,
"Lina please just wear them for me.
I just would like to see you in a dress."
And you could see a tear shedding from her eye. (Laughter )
The situation was so sympathetic I did not have the heart to say no,
so I'd go to the kitchen stuff myself with food.
In on week I have gained enough weight the dress doesn't fit anymore (Laughter).
Genius! I remember a tradition in my family
in each of our birthdays we go to this toy store
and each one of us gets to buy one and only one toy.
It's my birthday I go to the store, "bsm allah",
I walk in and my brothers rush to the boy section on the left
they're so excited to buy this toy,
it's a spin around toy in Arabic it's called "Bulbul",
and it was the toy of the era filling almost a dozen shelves
vividly colored and vividly defined in all sizes and shapes.
I would love to go and buy one, but wait to my right
stands the only feminine memory I've had as a child,
the our version of a girl doll and the perfect doll
for any young girl at my age.
Standing with the fakest smile (Laughter)
offering me her eternal friendship telling me to come and buy her.
It was the toughest decision of my life for an 8 year old
I was crying weeping my eyes out I look like a hound dog
I turn around to the one and only my father,
and I look up to him, "Dad I don't know what to do".
My father being the wise man that he is,
puts his hand on my shoulders and tells me,"Lina follow your heart"
(Laughter). Guess what I'm caring home with me after I walk out?
The doll. (Laughter) Yes the doll.
For the past years I have people pressuring me.
I have my grandmother I had my teachers
I had people, a lot of people pressuring me
and pushing me into being a girl.
Sit up straight, don't eat with your mouth full,
don't snore while you're sleeping. (Laughter)
It was a no for me. My parents got concerned with the whole issue
at least they made it an issue,
and decide to take me to an all girls school.
See here is the trick: I didn't know
it was an all girls school until the first day I walk in there.
I walk in, I look around...
OK, first of all why is the uniform pink? (Laughter)
Second of all why is the school painted with colors that literally hurt my eye?
I look up to my mother, "Mom what is this?"
She looks down to me as cold as she can get, she tells me
"Lina this is an all girls school your father and I made the decision
and it's for your own good" and she storms off.
I walk in, it's like I'm walking to Mars.
I know nobody, I hated it there.
Girls were loud, squeaky, their interest included pop stars and pink.
Wow! More pink in my life. (Laughter)
I walk in and I swore to myself as god as my witness I will leave this place
and I will leave -- it wasn't even a place it was hell to me -- and I swore.
But there happed to be this one girl, let's call her "A"
Thing is with "A", she was girly, squeaky,
and yes she wore pink and she loved it.
But she was utterly, terribly, awfully nice, really nice.
You see her mom was from Singapore so every day she would come
with like cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, oatmeal's, Oreo biscuits
food I can't even pronounce as breakfast.
Man what did I have -- egg with cheese.
If my mother comes to me one morning
tells me, "Lina you're having chocolate today", I would scream out
at street and screaming "hallelujah". (Laughter)
I'm staring drooling at her food
she can tell I want to eat the lunch box. (Laughter)
Gives me the whole lunch box tells me, "Lina give it to me when your done."
Couldn't possibly eat this kiddy girls food,
so I just take one bite and give it back to her.
In a period of 2 months,
this girl after spending time with her
after getting my heart really fond for her
niceness and kindness,
I became more of a girl.
I've accomplished something I never thought I would.
I had people trying to change me for 5 years
into being a girl, I had them pushing me. This girl changed me in 2 months,
only because she didn't pressure it to me, she didn't push it to me
she simply invited me, "Lina this is a girl would you like to be one".
Yes I would. Can I have some tea with that? (Laughter)
(Applause)
Moral of the story: change is part of life; it can be hard, it can be easy
but it's part of life. And as said by the English naturalist Charles Darwin,
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,
but rather the one most adaptable to change".
(Applause)
And just a piece of advice for each and everyone of you,
don't change for anyone and don't change if you don't want to
'cause you're beautiful the way you are. (Applause)
I was beautiful as a tomboy. I'm beautiful today.
Thank you very much.
(Applause) (Cheers)