Why I Ended with “It Was Meant to Happen”
The final words of my book are simple. “It was meant to happen.” I did not choose them because everything in my life was easy or because every painful event was somehow good. Some things were not good. The deaths of my brothers Sam and George during the Lebanese Civil War caused pain that never […]
The Chapters I Could Have Left Out
There were chapters in my book that would have been easier not to write. Success is usually simpler to remember in public. You can talk about opening businesses, receiving recognition, developing employees, buying a home, and watching your children grow. Those memories sit comfortably on the page. Failure does not. It brings back decisions you […]
I Never Replaced Lebanon with America
When I came to the United States in 1972, I did not arrive as an empty person waiting for America to give me an identity. I brought Lebanon with me. It was present in the languages I spoke, the food I missed, the prayers my mother taught me, and the way my father understood work. […]
The Jobs I Had Before Anyone Called Me a Leader
Before anyone called me a manager, a business owner, or a leader, I carried lumber, made pizzas, answered telephones, handled airline work, stocked food, and cleaned whatever needed cleaning. Those jobs were not a warm-up for my real life. They were my real life at the time. When I arrived in Michigan, I needed income […]
Why So Many Names Appear in My Book
When I began writing down my memories, I did not begin with a list of chapters. I began with people. My father driving his truck. My mother at home in Beirut. Mitch beside me during childhood trouble. Doley helping me remember dates. Nadine standing with me through work, loss, and every change that followed. Dana […]
What Opportunity Asked of Me
When I first came to the United States, I thought mostly about what I needed to do next. I needed work. I needed transportation. I needed to understand how people spoke, how stores operated, how bills were paid, and how a young man from Beirut was supposed to find his place in Michigan. At twenty-one, […]
The Five Nights I Slept in My Mustang
My first car in America was a 1965 Mustang. To me, it meant I no longer had to depend on my brother, my sister-in-law, or coworkers whenever I needed a ride. In Michigan, I learned quickly that a car was how you reached work, bought groceries, and handled the responsibilities of the day. The Mustang […]
How I Learned English from Records
English entered my life before America did. When I was a boy in Beirut, our house stood across the street from the American Library. Inside were books, magazines, films, maps, and pictures of a country I had never visited but had already begun to think about. One day, I went in with a sentence prepared. […]
The Marine Who Called Me Mike
Long before I became an American citizen, I was given an American name by a Marine in Beirut. I was eight or nine years old in the summer of 1958. Lebanon was going through a dangerous period, though children did not understand politics the way adults did. We understood the tension in their faces, the […]