From Children's Magazines to Graphic Design

Ever since I was a kid, I loved children’s magazines because of the drawings and shapes. I used to make my own magazines, draw the pages, and create the stories inside them. That was the first time I got really excited when my sister noticed how much I loved magazines and told me there was a college where I could make magazines like that. She told me its name: Fine Arts.

From that day, I started checking everything about it every single day. I knew its departments, where it was, what it looked like, and even the names of some professors.

When the year before college came, I realized I had prepared for everything except the Thanaweya Amma exams. I had the tools, took drawing courses, knew everything about the college, but I had no idea how to study. I didn’t get the grades to enter Fine Arts, and that was the first time I learned what depression meant. I let my sister choose any college for me, and she chose the worst one. I won’t even mention its name.

Finding My Way to Graphic Design

But not everything was over. While preparing for college, I discovered a hidden treasure: an art studio behind my house, owned by an artist from Cairo. I stayed there for three years, joined competitions, and learned from him. Honestly, those were the best three years of my life.

But drawing alone wasn’t enough for me. And that’s when I chose graaaaaaphic design.

I was convinced I would never find this job in Hurghada because, simply, I had never even left my neighborhood. I started learning from home, and one day, while passing a company with my sister, I told her, “I wish I could work somewhere like this.”

Less than a week later, I got the job.

I had already tried several places, so I told myself this was my last try. And unfortunately…

It worked.

Not because of me, though. There was a woman there who believed in me so much. Within two months, one of the biggest names in Hurghada’s advertising field contacted me with a job opportunity.

I worked with the person I loved the most, but with the worst team. I learned a lot from him and took courses from Cairo with some big names in the field. I loved working with him, but his team? The worst people I’ve ever seen.

Anyway, I left with really good experience and some pretty serious trauma, along with circumstances bigger than me that made it hard to keep fighting.

After having fifty dreams, passion, and energy, everything just switched off. Even looking at a screen became incredibly difficult.

I spent eight months at home trying to get myself back. I tried several places, but I couldn’t handle the donkey-work system that most marketing companies in Hurghada followed.

And I knew that before I left my old company. That’s why I was scared to leave. But it was the biggest mistake. I lost myself and burned myself out.

Finding the Right Team

Then someone suggested another place. I wasn’t excited. I was scared. I told myself I’d give them one week, and if I didn’t feel comfortable, I’d leave.

I met the best team I could possibly work with.

The one week became nine months.

And now, they’re helping me learn again, take more courses, do internships, and work in a much more professional way. More importantly, they helped me get through everything that happened, including what I went through with my old team.