I’m an aspiring polymath. Like Leonardo da Vinci and Abbas ibn Farnas, I want to be an expert at a dozen cool and complex topics. However, I realize that in today’s day and age, this might not be entirely possible, so I chose to pursue the study of human behavior on an undergraduate level, while working as an Arabic translator & digital marketer.

On an academic level, I want to focus on studying human behavior in the Arab world, and try to analyze the sources of various behaviors, like why we’re obsessed with Western-style consumerism while the religion we all claim to adhere to advocates minimalism, and why people (especially women) don’t take the initiative in educating themselves about their basic human rights (given by religion) and instead let various religious scholars befuddle their minds with their numerous interpretations of what God says.

On an entrepreneurial level, I want to make the Internet in Arabic a cool place to be, filled with amazing content created for consumers in order to educate them and help further their lives. Yes, I did say consumers. I’m not against consuming things, I just am against the cult-like behavior that surrounds consuming stuff, like: “Oh did you see, Reem just got a Dolce & Gabbana handbag for $$$$.” and “Pretty dress! How much did you buy that for?”. After all, a huge part of my work revolves around marketing, which is a key player in building a consumerist culture, if done the wrong way.

As a translator, my ultimate goal is to help break the language barrier and facilitate communication between people who speak different languages. One of my favorite communication methods is books - especially fiction - that allow us to transcend time and space, and - with the help of translators - language, to convey a message. This is why I'm passionate about translating books.

I come from a diverse, multilingual background, but personally I’m just bilingual in English and Arabic. An Algerian expat living in Saudi Arabia, home-schooled using a hybrid curriculum made of the American and British educational systems, working online as a freelancer first and an entrepreneur now, I seem to have a pretty different life than most people my age, but at the core, removed from all the wrappers and labels, we all have the same struggle: trying to make a decent life for ourselves and our families, while not losing ourselves in monotonous routines that threaten to take over our creativity, productivity, and spirits.