Fragment of Unpublished Memoir

This is an unfinished attempt at an autobiographical memoir, written from November 1st to November 29, 2017 during my sophomore year of high school for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

Meine Gedanken...

you’re probably looking at this and thinking, “what is he talking about? Is this another version of the infamous ‘meine Kampf’?” No, dear reader, this is just a collection of my thoughts, the thoughts no one has heard me utter yet.

It all started when I fist signed up for NaNoWriMo, or, National Novel Writing Month, which happened to be in November, no brainer, right?

But before I start talking about my thoughts, you first must know who in the world I am and what background I come from which leads to me thinking this way.

My full name is Mina Joseph Edward Abd-ElSayed Basta Mikhail Abd-ElSayed. I am a native born Egyptian currently residing in the State of California, USA. Specifically in a city in the Tri-Valley Area of the Bay Area. San Ramon, California. It’s definitely weird to comprehend how in the world I came here from Egypt to America. But the Journey is waaaay longer than that. Let’s start in the very beginning.

I was born in the city of Asyut, Egypt. It’s a long way from Cairo, where everyone assumes Egyptians are born. I find it really interesting how people come to think that Egypt has only one city and that nomads live in pyramids and speak hieroglyphics and eat falafel every single moment of their life. What astounds me even more is that people just assume that Egypt is 110% Muslim. Weird, huh? Anyway, back to where I was. Asyut, Egypt. It’s situated near the Nile River and temperatures there soar to the highest in summer. Regularly, in Egypt, temperatures are already hot. But in Asyut, it’s 10 times hotter. Highest temperatures could reach 44 degrees centigrade in the summer and the lowest is probably 67 in the winter. There is nothing called autumn or spring. You just move from summer to winter, never stopping to wonder the allergies and diseases of spring or the colors of fall. Egypt is very extremely dry. It is situated in the outer reaches of the Sahara Desert and its only sustenance is the Nile River, along which everything flourishes.

Now, back to me. Jeez I get distracted a lot nowadays. And just as I was saying that, I start observing the trees outside my room. Weird, huh? Now, remember that I said I was born in Egypt, a place special for a million reasons. Now that’s not the only thing special, not only was I born in a special place, but also at a special time. January 1st, 2002 AD. A day that might as well live in my infamy. Jeez, got distracted again. I was looking at the board and I see a word written in Arabic. Might as well write one myself too, know what I mean. Anyway, back to it again. January 1st, 2002, the day I came into the world without my choice even though I was already in it for 9 months in my mother’s womb. It is unbelievable how time flies by. I, thankfully, was born to two loving parents who love me with all their heart. Their names are Ereny Kodsy, my mother, and Joseph Basta, my father. Later on during my life, I have come to acquire many fathers, not including my biological one, to lean on in times of trouble. And as I observe the recent writings on the board, I observe that I’m really really behind on writing many things and thoughts. If you thought that this is all, oh ho, you are in for a fun ride!

So where was I? Oh Yes, me being born. What an eventful day that was. The not so obvious thing about me nowadays is how much I know about myself, those around me, both in History and in Church, and just general information; yet despite all that, the total amount of knowledge that I as a human know is very extremely limited. I could go on and rant about how important the Council if Nicea was or whether Logan Paul spends his money lavishly, not that it matters anyways, because you came here to know about how I think. Yet the weird and wonderful thing is that my mentality is really amazing. You see, what I just mentioned above are indeed things that I think about from time to time, amongst the many other important things that I have to consider in my short life, such as whether or not I took insulin for the food I ate or if I counted my carbs correctly or if I have a meeting tonight or not, you see. But despite all this, I also have to find sometime to spend with the love of my life, my Lord and God, Jesus Christ. I can see that you are laughing right now, thinking: “This kid is crazy! Who says that the love their life is some dude named Jesus? No wonder this kid is a freak!” And to that I say, “You know who is an inconsiderate monkey with no soul or opinion on anything pertaining to the issues of religion and society? Take a look in the mirror and then tell me, you imbecile fool!” Yes, my dear reader, I love my God with all my heart, my soul, mind, and strength. And how my life played out and the many situations that I went through are the evidence for that. You see, people these days like to believe in what they see or can feel. But the truth is, simply, it doesn’t always work. I mean, can you physically see your brain with your very eyes? Yet you do know it’s there? But is it there? Is it YOUR brain inside your head? These are the types of questions people ask nowadays that practically have no answer. We definitely know that a human has a brain, and that we are humans, but does that mean that we have a brain? It’s these weird and general assumptions that we come up with to explain what we cannot see, but it needs not, for it can be simplified into one word: faith. Faith is the essence to all that we hold true. I do quite remember a phrase one of my Sunday School servants said about science and religion, he said: “Science only explains how we got here, but religion explains why we are here.” And quite honestly, it could not have been said better. And to back this up, I give you an open window into how this 15 year old teenager saw this, from the earliest days of his life till the time this book, which is in your hands, was written.

Let’s start from the very beginning, 2 years after I was born. I lived a life that was quite nice. I have loving parents who take care of me and show me the wonders of the religion I was baptized into. But before I talk about my journey in faith, let’s start with the early beginnings, starting with my baptism. I was fortunate to be baptized in one of the oldest monasteries in the world, a monastery that was blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ himself. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, a male child is baptized after 40 days of his birth. Before that, a priest can perform the prayer of the first bath. Both my baptism and my bathing prayers were done by the same priest, who later departed to the Heavenly Paradise after age 7.

To be frankly honest, I don’t remember much after that. All that I just said was what my parents told me of what had happened, because clearly, they definitely know way more than me about me. Weird, huh?

Frankly, I don’t remember much. I do remember that one time when we went to Luxor and Aswan and saw the temples there.