I have been working hard lately to put money together to go and watch the World Cup life in Qatar. Knowing my situation and life, it might actually be the only World Cup I am able to watch live from the stadium. The reason for that is that it is held in Qatar which is 2 hours away by plane. I simply watch this one or forget about ever getting to watch a World Cup live from the stadium.
Growing up in Iraq, I never was able to watch my national football team live from the stadium at home. I only managed to watch them twice while living in Qatar and UAE while my father was working in those respective countries.
However, my father had to return to Iraq after he reached 60 years old, which Qatar considered being retirement age. Not being a Qatari, my father wasn't able to get any money from being forced into retirement which sent him, and subsequently me, back to Iraq. As a result of that change, I wasn't able to finish even a month in college.
Ever since our situation has been getting from bad to worse as we still had our sisters to take care of. My dad and I just had so much we needed to catch up on, and even though he is closer to 70 now than 60, he is still forced to work.
I think having my father still having to go to work every day is what hurts me the most. I have had at least 10 different jobs in the last few years, all terminated for reasons outside of my control. The latest of which was the companies I worked for having to cut down employees due to the pandemic.
Things have been looking up relatively, slowly getting better. Yes, my father still has to work currently, but we're able to afford to have him with less workload.
Lately, I have been trying to learn to trade more and not be as passive as I have been since I joined, in terms of trading. I read many posts here and try to learn slowly about where to focus. It's a process that I hope will pay off soon.
Why This World Cup Matters
As I stated earlier, this is the only World Cup that seems feasible to attend for me. But I have two main reasons for having this goal this year.
The first one is I had that luxury in a way. That luxury of having extra money around instead of always chasing debts as I have been for at least the last 5 years. I am still in my mid-twenties and a big chunk of my hair is already turning grey due to a lot of stress. It's just a goal to achieve that would be an indicator that we're doing well enough not only to survive but have the ability to do stuff for fun.
The Second And Most Important Reason
This goes back to a conversation I had with my father that still gives me anxiety whenever I think about it.
My dad's best friend died a few months ago, my dad was unable to attend the funeral since his friend was living in Sweden. My dad was trying to meet his friend for the last 25 years but was unable to for monetary reasons. Their deal was watching that World Cup, a promise they made while my father was still living in Qatar.
The part that gives me the anxiety isn't that however, it's what my father said about how he feels he won't live to make it to the next World Cup. I can't describe how gut-wrenching it was listening to him talking about how stress is getting to him as well and how he can't rest even at his age with me unable to solve that.
That is my main reason for aiming for that in the next few months, it is my desperate attempt to make that dream of his come true so that for some time he would be able to just have stress-free fun without having to stress about bills and taking care of my sisters.
It's just a hopeful goal to make my father happy in what he sees as his last years.