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Basurrah PAGE 5

Anas Basurrah

Rachel David

ENG 101

Octo/4/2014

Interview with Person of Interest

One of the individuals whose life I am particularly interested about is Hassan Basurrah, a 25-year old cousin who used to live in Taif but now he lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. As much as I am interested in his Personalty he is a well educated man, and he knows what he is doing and what he wants exactly from his life. Moreover, if you ever sat down with him you will never feel bored because Hassan is a happy person, and he is trying his best to make the people around him happy too.

Hassan already has a Bachelors’ Degree in Computer Engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. Although Hassan is an excellent student. When I asked him about his GPA Hassan told me, “ I got 3.77 out of possible 4” which is great because King Abdulaziz University is one of the good schools in Jeddah. With that being said, this is maybe have been his goal to graduate from this specific school. By the fact that he was always interested in working with computers, in which case computer and technology has always been his passion. When I asked Hassan why did you choose your major he told me, “Since I was nine years old, I was attached to the computer, and I think it is a big major also, it’s really easy to find a job if you are a computer major because nowadays everything is connected to it in one way or another.” Indeed, right from a young age since I know Hassan I remember that he spends most of his time looking into an old radio or television, and he breaks them down and build them up again until he get the idea of how to create a new one, in additional, he used to fix an old radio for his grandfather before he passed away. Hassan still keeps the radio as a reminder of his grandfather because they were so close to each other. Then I started to ask passed if Hassan worked after he graduated from the University I told myself if I want an answer I have to ask him because if I do not I would not know and I would be curious about it. Then I asked him by saying Hassan Have you worked after finishing your bachelor degree ? And where ? after I asked him, he was looking into the ceiling like he was trying to explain how was the work and then he stated, “hum, Yes I did, well it was in one of my relative’s companies, and at that time I used to design a website for his clients, And I love it because I could spend the whole time working without knowing that there are several hours have passed.” Actually Hassan used to work at one of my father’s cousin companies, and I remembered the owners of the company was talking to us at a party about Hassan works, by saying it was unique and you can not compare his work to anyone who had been working with us for a long time. It is like Hassan knows what his clients exactly wants.

Of particular note is the fact that he went to the United States after finishing his bachelors’ degree. This made me ask him by saying Hassan would recommend studying abroad for your friends ? and he answered me with, “yeah, but, I think it would be better if they come to here for master degree, but for the bachelor degree no.” I told him why not? he stated by saying what he thinks. “well because if you come to here and you are 18 or 19 years old by yourself it is going to be hard because you are still young, and sometime you could make a really bad decision.”. I do not agree with his point of view because, most of the students who is staying abroad knows what they want, and why they are here. But of course not all of them.

Also, it does not mean, if you are doing your master abroad, you will not have any problem, but you will focusing on your degree rather than partying or skipping the school. After our discussion about studying in another country, I asked him to describe his experience of living in another part of the world, which completely different from his home country and Hassan told me, “I have become opened minded and I respect the people for whom there are, before that I didn’t know that many people who came from another part of the world or from another culture, and I think I am different from before in a better way.” Which is true because I have the same experience because we used to live in a small place and the people around us are same, so, we did not get the chance to see the people with different opinion or different religion.

On the same note, Hassan knows for a fact that one of the keys for success in someone’s life depends on the choices of the academic field. He went ahead to select California State University, Fullerton, I asked Hassan why did you choose this particular university over the other’s, and he said, “Well, First of all, because I have some friends who used to study with me back home at KAU (King Abdualaziz University) and they are here. Second, because I got accepted without the ILETS (International English Language Testing System), and I do not have to take the GRE exam. Moreover, the location it is located in Southern California, and it was my dream to live in California.” This is good for him, and he is lucky because, normally if you are an international student it is hard to get acceptance in the universities, there so many requirements, hard ones. Hassan described the live in California by, “ well I could say is my dream came true.” I am happy for him because Hassan is doing what he was hoping for. I have so many Saudi friends, they hoped to get accepted at the university, but they did not meet the qualifications of the schools so hey have to get back home.

As much as there may have been questions regarding some decisions that he made in his life, Hassan also has a clear plan for what he wants to do in the next five years, such as he is planning to finish his master next spring, after that Hassan is going to try his best to work in sunny San Diego for four years, until he understands every aspect in the programing then he is planing to open his own company back home. It is easy to say he was capable of what he is doing, and he has no problem of dealing with the people who came from another culture, calm and soft spoken and he has friends in every stage in his life.

Work Cited

Basurrah, Hassan. Personal interview 22 sept 2014.