What do you do when your home country descends into civil war? Fahd, A Migrant from Syria

Hi, my name is Stuart Alsop, and this is my podcast, Crazy Wisdom, where I interview creative people about the connection between stress and creativity and what role stress plays in the creative process. Usually I interview people of pretty well off means who have the luxury of pursuing their creative passions without too much worry about where their next meal is going to come from. But today I interviewed Fahd, a refugee from Syria. And Fahd had to travel through 12 borders to get from Syria, which is in civil war, to Berlin, Germany, where he could seek asylum. And the most interesting thing about this podcast was how Fahd deals with stress that most of us in the Western world haven't even come close to dealing with. And the creativity that came out on his trip is really, truly astonishing. I think you'll really enjoy listening to Fahd's story, and I think it will be a really influential moment in your life hearing Fahd's tale of his adventure, getting from Syria to Berlin, and finding his passion as a programmer. If you like this podcast, please find us on itunes by searching for Crazy Wisdom. Thanks. Have a great day.

Oh, yeah. My name is Fahad and I came from Syria, from Damascus. I was born and raised there. I'm 24 years old.

And so you were born in Damascus and what made you leave Damascus?

Basically, I left my hometown because of the stuff, like the recent events, which you probably know, like politics, war, whatever. And at some point it was really dangerous to stay there. So, yeah, the only way, like, not to survive because, like, I, if I was like, staying there in my own country, basically it was a civil war. And like, not, not only civil war, there was like, I don't know, a lot of militias, they were involving in that, whatever. So. And I, I didn't really want to be part of this. If there was like, someone trying to invade my country, whatever, I would have stayed and defend, but I wouldn't stay like, and maybe could have been dead for no reason. So, yeah, that was one of the main reasons that I left and my family really pushed me to do it as well.