Page 20 - ADU Voice Volume 4 Issue 2

19 Voice | Spring 2025
A HOME IN THE MAKING..
By Sarah Ibrahim Sakr
niversity is usually a bridge where
knowledge is gained, skills get
Urefined, and a future becomes
defined, carving a fortified structure. Not
much is said about how it slowly swallows
our lives, how time simply slips away from
our hands, and how the days fade into the
indistinct cycle of endless classes, deadlines,
and rare moments of respite. As my dear
friend puts it; “We got the life sucked out
of us..”. Yet in this relentless pursuit, we
inadvertently forge something far beyond
an education; we forge a family - a family
formed not by blood but by shared suffering,
by wandering secrets at dawn, and by the
goodness of laughter dripping through 8 pm
hallways.
My university life withdrew a lot of personal
elements of my day-to-day life from me and it
has become a norm now. Days were nothing
but schedules; nights, all about assignments;
thoughts, filled with those assignments due
the next day or an exam soon after. And
the person I have long since become seems
a very distant memory to me now, hardly
recognizable. I wonder sometimes what I
may have missed out on beyond these walls
that I just could not attend. Quiet Sunday
mornings at home, or just the simple pleasure
of watching the sun go down without the
thought of unfinished work looming over me.
And yet I see this sacrifice without resentment,
for the time I have given has brought me
immeasurable rewards. I have found friends
who feel like home, those whom I considered a
safe refuge in life’s mayhem. Together, we have
sipped our exhausted sighs over cups of coffee,
wiped the tear-streaked faces after horrid days,
and held each other as we barreled through the
valley of uncertainty. An extraordinary bond is
stitched together amongst the students trapped
in the same chaotic whirlpool of scholarly
pressure and emotional turmoil. We walk the
same corridors, embrace successes and failures
together, and learn the art of leaning on each
other when the burden of expectation becomes
too heavy to bear.
The library, once a dreaded fortress of infinite
text, transforms into a haven where we come
together, not just to bury ourselves in books
but to collect the precious memories of our
shared existence. I truly felt this shift late one
evening, when my friends and I gathered around
a single, dimly lit table, exchanging whispered
jokes between pages of overdue assignments.
The scent of old paper and fresh coffee mingled
in the air as we turned stress into laughter, our
silent glances and nods hinting at camaraderie.
It was then that I realized the library was never
just about books; it was about the people who
filled in its quiet spaces with life.