My name is Khaled. I am a Palestinian from the city of Gazaa young, educated man. But my education did not begin only in school; it began the moment I understood that life here is not given freely, and that simply surviving requires courage.
In Gaza, we do not grow up the way others do. We grow while counting days with patience, measuring dreams by how much we can endure. I learned to wake up holding on to hope, even when there was nothing reassuring. I learned to believe in tomorrow, even when today felt unbearably heavy.
My childhood was not poor in love, but it was heavy with waitingwaiting for calm, waiting for a chance, waiting for a life like the ones we read about in books. I studied, wrote, and dreamed, not because circumstances helped me, but because I refused to let them extinguish me.
I chose education because it was the one thing no one could take away from me. Every book I read was a small victory, and every word I learned was a promise that I was not just a number or a passing headline. I wanted to be a voice, not an echo.
Gaza did not break meit revealed me to myself. It taught me the meaning of dignity, and what it means to remain human when that is the greatest challenge of all. I am not a hero; I am a young man trying to live, to understand, and to tell his story honestly.
This is my storythe story of Khaled from Gaza. The story of a young man who is still standing, not because he has not grown tired, but because he chose not to fall.💔🇵🇸https://chuffed.org/project/khaled-and-dina
