Hatem:
You know this thing kept me up ‘til two o’clock last night because you're asking me for ten. You really want to talk about ten fears.
Number one. The fear of failure.
Number two. The fear of not providing. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I have to provide.
Oh my God. Number three. I don't want to say it's health fear, but it is actually.
Number four. The fear of something wrong may happen to your kids, and just the notion of it crippled you.
Number five. The fear of not being able to achieve my big dream which I put on hold for so many years. The dream was to finish my master's degree. At that time, in 2001, I was just studying and working and then it happened. 9/11. There was a lot of rumors around, and I don't forget even one of these rumors. Oh my God, they're going to gather all the Arabs and put them in camps like what happened to the Japanese during the Second World War. It was terrible. So as soon as 9/11 happened and the rumors start I stopped going to the college, and I just kept a low profile. And after a while, you know, I met my wife, and we got married, and then we get the kids. So the role of a student has to go to the backseat now and the role of a father and a husband took control.
Six. The fear of wars. My dad joined the army. Egypt, you know, went into a few wars. You know that. And when you hear from him about people who are dead, and you might you might be in the desert with not enough supplies or this and this. There is nothing good comes out of war.
Number seven. The fear of not seeing my dad. I couldn’t manage to visit for almost, unfortunately, ten years.
Number eight. If you notice, with the winning of Mr. Trump, the voice of white supremacist and chauvinistic views became louder. A few months ago, in the morning, I didn't notice somebody painted on one side of my car the word ‘Taliban.’ I was, like, “What the hell?” And I was so happy when I got the towel and I wiped it. It was, like, erasable. So they didn't use a permanent marker or something that was going to cost me money. Thank you Mister! But the point is, it did not happen in 20 years.
Number nine. The fear of not being able to speak your mind because of a backlash. I know some Muslims, and actually believe it or not many, who voted for Trump, but they do not say that to their co-workers. Why? They fear backlash. I thought we have a political system over here.
Man, number ten, believe it or not it's a fear. To go home and find out that my wife cooked spaghetti for dinner. I hate spaghetti. I cannot stand spaghetti. It's, like, personal.
My name is Hatem El-Gamasy and these are 10 things that scare me.