Introducing Ahmed Jamal

Bio of a simple and kind man

When I was young, I had many big dreams despite living in a country ravaged by civil war, yet it never occurred to me that one day, I will introduce myself to the world like this. It is such a great honor for me and really humbled to be part of this great community of readers and writers.

My name is Ahmed Jamal Abahaji and I am from Mogadishu, Somalia. I am the sixth born of a family of twelve. I am very proud to say that I had a very humble upbringing by very kind parents.

For many of you who are reading this bio, you have probably lived in a peaceful country in your whole life, but the opposite is true for me and the majority of my people. I was hardly able to describe what peace means or feels like until I visited some foreign countries later in my teenage years.

By coincidence in 1990, the year of my birth which also happens to be the same year that the central government collapsed, my country erupted into a civil war that lasted my entire childhood and teenage years as well as most of my adult life, except for the last few years now that we are witnessing some form of stability.

There are no words that can explain how difficult and risky it was just to get basic things like food, medicine, education, and the freedom to move around inside your own country in the early years of the civil war. Despite all of those challenges, I attended madrassa and school on weekdays in difficult circumstances and played football in the streets on weekends.

The turning point

It was only until the turn of the 21st century that I got the opportunity to travel outside my country for the first time and see a glimpse of what the outside world looked like. I have been to countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. Thanks to these travels that I have learned many different languages starting with Arabic followed by English, Urdu, Kiswahili, and now in the process of learning Turkish.

Learning new languages is very interesting and it opens the door for you to connect with different people and learn about new cultures and traditions.

Family time

After finishing high school and taking a one-year introductory course in IT, I had to stop my education journey for some time and start a family by getting married at an early age which is by the way cultural. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t work out well, after years of ups and down, it ended in divorce, although we loved each other very much, we could not prevent our marriage from breaking down. The best part of our marriage is that we have been gifted a very smart and handsome young boy who is now four years old.

The divorce really hit me hard and it turned my life upside down because I lost everything I had in my view, which is family. My wife left along with our son who was nine months old at the time and suddenly I became alone. The months that followed were very disastrous as I was not able to leave home even for work, let alone doing anything else useful.

The road to reading and writing

After staying like that for around six months, I finally came across a video on Youtube which had a big impact on me. The title of the video was The Power of Reading Books! uploaded by SmartandRelentless.com.

I strongly suggest everyone should watch this video which can be found below.

It was then, I started reading books and articles which really made me feel better, but it was the following two years that I took reading very seriously and started journaling what was happening in my life in a small notebook.

In December 2019, I joined Medium mainly to read the amazing articles that were written by inspiring writers who were writing about a wide range of topics. But what surprised most is when the idea of writing about how I joined Medium came across my mind, it took me only less than an hour to write the article and then publish it on the same day. I felt great about it that day and started to believe writing is enjoyable just as reading is, therefore, I decided to embargo on the journey of writing more in 2020 and beyond.

When tragedy comes

January 2020, began very well by posting an article about Kindness and the plan was to write an article every week in the early stages of my writing journey and a week later my second article was ready but something unexpected happened.

My young brother who was 18 years old and finished his IGCSE in 2019 got sick and hospitalized in Mombasa, Kenya. I left Mogadishu and traveled to Mombasa in an emergency. After staying with him for one week in the hospital, unfortunately, he passed away making it the biggest loss of my life so far. I could not think of anything else during this period. It took me some time to overcome this loss.

Life tests us in many ways but the loss of a family member is the biggest test of all in this world.

Final thoughts

I am still in the early stages of my writing journey, fortunately, Medium has opened the door for many of us who have the potential to become professional writers.

I would like to learn from everyone out there and at the same time show support to my fellow new writers. The journey is just beginning, we have days, months, and years ahead of us to improve so that we can contribute positively to our readers.

Time to say thank you

Finally, I would like to thank you for taking your precious time to read my bio. Special thanks to Dr Mehmet Yildiz and the whole team of Illumination for giving us this great opportunity to introduce ourselves to our fellow readers and writers and be part of this great project.

Thank you again.