“When do you plan on getting married?” my father, aunts, uncles, and cousins always ask me.
Or if we’re at a wedding, they always say ou’balik [may you be next].
I wonder how the elders of the family would react if I walked around at funerals and poked them, saying “Ou’balik!”

It’s funny how my dad wants me to get married and see me settled once I graduate,
But he also gets upset when I go out a lot.
I mean, how am I supposed to meet “Mr. Right” if he wants me at home all the time?
I don’t let him get to me.
I still go out, but it’s just the idea.

What’s even funnier is how he wants me to get married, but when any one of my relatives jokingly asks if there’s a special someone in my life, a boyfriend or something, he would jump in with “I’ll kill her if she has one.”
It’s an expression that in Arabic is said “Da ana hamawetha”.
It isn’t as serious as it sounds, but it’s interesting, his reaction.

So in the end I’m supposed to get married but don’t get to know anyone.
Get married but not experience a relationship.

Plus, fathers are paranoid, especially mine.
Every time I mention a guy’s name, he immediately wonders if there’s something going on between us.
He creates something out of nothing.