Hala Taha

A big thing I had to overcome and I feel bad for all the Arabs and, you know, folks that that really got mistreated for no reason, especially from like a family like mine.

Like my dad loved being American.

Like my dad used to tell me all the time, like we live in the best country in the world.

Like you should be so grateful you're in America.

Like he really was the embodiment of the American dream.

So such a slap in the face to like a family like mine, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, I do.

Because I feel like everything is like the butterfly effect, right?

Like little things in your life position you differently later on.

And yeah, I do feel like if that didn't happen to me, I don't know if I would have been so ambitious.

And to be honest...

Me in college, I just wanted to try things.

I actually never went to class because I got into the radio club and I got into my sorority and I was on the cheerleading team and I was the lead in my play.

I just wanted to try and try and try things because I was denied for so long to do anything outside of just class.

And so I was like wanted all these experiences.

And I think it was me thinking outside the box and being more excited, not about my education, like unfortunately or fortunately, not about like me going to class.

I was more excited about doing other things like being in the radio club.

Right.

And so it just gave me like a different perspective, I think, on like how I wanted to spend my time.