An Intro to Me

A picture that reminds myself of who I am.

Part 1 - My Bio

  Where to start? Firstly, I'm Zina Kaissi, sister to two and an all-around book nerd whose main passions are to read, write and draw till the day's done. I've read a variety of books from fantastic fantasy novels to the thrilling world of Sci-fi. But, I will always place my family above all else, above my reading obsession, my studying and my dreams. They are what I care about the most for a person cannot be happy when they cannot share the smiles of their family.

  And it is from that love that I found my passion for reading and my love of language. Without language, I would be unable to explain what I see, hear or feel to others or show the world, as I am now, who I am. Language in itself is an art that takes years to master and something so complex as it changes constantly, adapting to the new generations and becoming something completely new, just as Shakespearean has, through adapting, become our modern tongue of quick sentences and abbreviations. And because of this, it is an important subject to study, especially to myself, as you not only learn words with which to express your feelings or stories, but learn with it the new cultures of the people of the world. You could learn what they find value in from the way they associate certain ideas or beliefs with specific phrases, like how water might be important to a drought-ridden country, thus calling the water 'life-saving' or 'essential'.

  But, as there are many languages in the world, some might feel that they have some barriers that they have to work through due to their knowledge of languages. These language barriers could be caused by where these people live where their native language might not be widely used. Luckily, due to my mother language being English, I have not found such barriers but, to me, I find that the lack of knowledge of the UAE's other main language, Arabic, blocks me from experiencing their full, unfiltered culture, causing me to lack the chance to experience this country as locals or native Arabic speakers do. This, to me, is a barrier that I plan to overcome by learning and, eventually, speaking Arabic to expose myself to not just the culture of the U.A.E., but also to other Arabic-majority speaking countries such as Saudi Arabia or Oman.



Part 2: My Goal Setting

  Just as my first DP year rolls by, I hope to join the volleyball team at the school as I have always wanted to find a sports team to play in for the school but hadn't found the right sport until last year. Additionally, I hope to finish my book's editing so that it can be published soon. And, I'll have a better chance at editing my book successfully as, by analyzing multiple texts in the class, I will understand how much certain words or phrases can impact an audience's mood and help me to portray the tone I had wanted to achieve in some areas of my book. And, after these 2 years, I will finally be able to finish my book. But, I can also understand the world and its cultures better, which could help me in college when I learn in a larger international environment where I can pick up the skills of analysis from this class and use it in the outside world to understand how others feel through their novels or other pieces of writing, such as newspaper articles.