It's worth more than you think

It has been a while since my last blog post. I keep using life as an excuse for my bloggo-hiatus but I have decided to snap out of it. 

Let me bore you with a little story...

I grew up in Abu Dhabi and moved to Sudan in 2003 for college. In late 2012, when I was still in Sudan, I decided to return to the UAE. One of the obstacles that I faced was that my entire family had relocated to Sudan a few years earlier. The thought of detaching and living alone was scary but I decided it was time for me to start a new life. 

I didn’t know what items to take. What do you pack when you're leaving and don't know when you're coming back? I took very few clothes, some shoes and a bunch of photographs, diaries and journals that I've had since childhood. I also took a digital camera that my dad bought me in 2004; back when, if their life depended on it, no one would've known what a selfie was.

I don’t know what prompted me to take that camera with me. It must've been a good 3 years or so since anyone even touched it. I checked that it was working and packed it along with my other stuff.

Canon PowerShot SX100 IS, 10X Optical Zoom, 8.0 MegaPixels

Then I moved to the UAE, to Dubai, where I have been living now for the past 2 years. When I came across the campaign by dubizzle, namely "It's Worth More Than You Think" (#ItsWorthMore), it was the fourth time for me to remember that I owned that camera since I said goodbye to my family in Sudan. The first three times were when I moved out from one apartment to the next one. Eventually I would settle and toss the camera in some drawer, never to be heard of again (until potentially the next time I move out). 

I saw the video and it struck a chord. I haven't used this camera in the longest time, and yet it had more sentimental value to me than anyone could ever imagine. I used it to capture moments from my friends' weddings, my sister holding her first child, my own college graduation, my mother's loving smile, my father's kind eyes, and many images of my beloved Sudan...

I opened the drawer where my camera remained captive. It needed batteries and I inserted them. There were pictures of me hugging my late grandmother on the morning of Eid. We both looked happy. There were many more valuable photos of family and friends. Every picture spoke a thousand words.

I'll be taking part in dubizzle's campaign. My camera is up for grabs to whomever swaps something that is of equal value to them as my camera is to me. Something they haven’t used in a while or don't wish to use anymore… something that's worth more than anyone thinks.

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