You can call me “Honkech”
The first question that might pop into your head is who is Honkech? What is Honkech? Where is this word derived from? So many questions to ask before we even get to why I suddenly decided to do something as random as creating a blog. If you live with me for a day, you will think that I don’t really have time to do anything other than focus on my job. This is partially true. I decided to opt for a job that consumes a great amount of time and effort for reasons that I will discuss in the future. But recently, I asked myself a daunting question that I think would scare any person. What makes me happy? or rather what can I do now to feel happier? This is important because even though my job provides me the feeling of impact on society and a great learning curve, it’s so far from being a vacation on a deserted island with my favorite music and a Netflix account.
When I asked myself this question, I felt like there is one thing that can truly help make me feel more at ease. I overthink so much that sometimes I feel smoke coming out of my ears. Therefore, I wanted to clear my mind by putting down some of my thoughts on a weekly basis in a blog (cause journals are too much to handle) and sharing them with the world. Sharing is not even that important to me. I personally think that I can just write all of this for myself but sometimes, I might have the urge to share some stories that I feel might inspire others in some way.
Now going back to who Honkech is and what this word even means? In order to explain this, I have to go back 10 years in the past to my freshman year of high school. I was this little awkward annoying and chubby kid that just started to realize the importance of academics. When you add nerdy to that equation, it doesn’t really help your social status. However, I didn’t care what people said or thought (At least I pretended to) so it didn’t really matter to me. During that year, I had this Arabic professor who was always friendly and casual with his students that kept calling me “Honkech”. You have no idea how much I hated it! “Honkech” is derived from the word “Hnek” which means Cheeks in Arabic. So basically “Honkech” was his way of describing me as Cheeky because of the big cheeks I had as a chubby 15-year-old kid. The problem was beyond this professor calling me that name. It spread like wildfire as my nickname in High School. My peers at school all kept calling me “Honkech”. Gosh, how it made all of my body image issues haunt me even more (But also more on that later).
One might wonder why would I name my blog with the word that I despised for so long. Well, it’s a form of empowerment. I want to feel empowered and in order to do that, I have to learn how to accept and love myself no matter what. This is a deep and complicated issue but it’s important for me to take that first step. By turning this word around and using it to create a platform where Tolerance, love, and peace become the norm. That is why I want to tell you that no matter what people say about you, to your face or behind your back, nothing can stop you from learning how to love yourself. On this beautiful note, I welcome you to the Honkech World ❤
