Farewell EXCEED It Was Not an Easy Decision

Yemenat

Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi

One day in December 2014, at around ten o’clock in the morning, I was lying on my bed, absorbed in reading The Old Man and the Sea by the American writer Ernest Hemingway, a Nobel Prize laureate. I was alone in the house when my mobile phone rang. I answered the call.

“Hello.”

“Hello. This is EXCEED Institute. Is this Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi?”

“Yes.”

I immediately got to my feet.

“You have been accepted at EXCEED Institute.”

I thanked the caller, still trying to take it all in.

My joy was beyond words. I wandered from one room to another and into the living room, repeating, (Alhamdulillah… Alhamdulillah) (Praise be to God). I had been accepted at EXCEED Institute and had become an English teacher at one of the finest English language institutes in Yemen.

Later that day, when my family returned home, I shared the news with them, and they were overwhelmed with joy. We celebrated by going out to a restaurant and then to a park, savoring moments of pure happiness whose warmth we still feel to this day.

That came after a series of examinations and interviews. I still remember my first day there. I found myself gazing at the place. There were three buildings, each consisting of five stories, set within a spacious courtyard lined with carefully arranged green trees, areas designated for table games, basketball, and other sports activities, as well as a cafeteria, a prayer room for male students, and another for female students.

The courtyard and hallways were crowded with students. They spoke English in an atmosphere that, for a moment, made me feel as though I were no longer in Yemen but somewhere else entirely.

My day began at seven o’clock every morning. I would leave my apartment near the