Like usual, I got out of class Friday afternoon and text Khedir to make sure he could still meet. He told me he still wanted to but that he was starving and craving fast food. He asked me if I wanted to go to Jack in the Box with him and said he’d drive. So we went. It was lunch time for Pascal High School and it was really crowded and Khedir is not the loudest guy on earth and that made it especially difficult for him to make his order. I helped him out a little bit and we found a spot to sit. He offered to buy me something but I had just eaten but not wanting to insult him I took him up on an iced tea.
We got to talking about stuff and I asked him what his favorite fast food place was. He really likes Jack in the Box but not McDonalds. I told him my favorite place was Carl’s Jr. which I doubted he would know about because I’m pretty sure there are like two of them in Texas but surprisingly he had. I told him they used to sponsor some fundraisers we did for my Cross Country team in high school and we were always getting coupons for free burgers which was ironic because we were a Cross Country team. I also made myself vehemently clear that I thought Whataburger was complete poo and hardly qualified as food. Luckily for me, he sided with me on my passionate stance.
Next I asked him if he finally got his score for the GMAT test back and he said he missed the minimum requirement to get into the MBA program by only a few points and it was mostly due to the English section. This was pretty bad news to hear and I felt bad for him because I know he had been working so hard to prepare for that test and because his English has gotten so much better in just the eight weeks or so that we have been meeting. I asked him what he was going to do and he just said that he was going to retake it again in a few weeks and hope he scores higher. I really hope he does because you can tell just from talking to him that he is an insanely smart guy. It’s just that English is his third language next to Arabic and Somali.
I asked if there was anything that I or anyone at TCU could do and he said no, he just has to work on English a little bit more, specifically written English. He then asked me about the test I have to take to get into med school. I told him it was called the MCAT but I that I don’t have to take it till next fall. He wanted to know a little more so I told him it has five sections; Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, and a Written English section. It is scored out of 45 points and really anything over a 30 is a decent score.
We both talked about how dumb it is that so much of your future comes down to standardized tests. But I guess it’s the only way they have to measure people’s aptitudes and knowledge of the subject on the same scale. Still, it is frustrating.
We chatted for a little while longer while he took down his double cheeseburger and the hit the road. During the drive back, we mostly just complained about Texas drivers. Sorry to anyone reading this who happens to be from the Dallas Ft. Worth area, but nobody knows how to drive here. Khedir maybe wasn’t the best driver on earth but at least I didn’t have to take away his phone like I do for some of my friends before they drive.
He dropped me off in front of Milton Daniel and I thanked him again for the tea. I told him we would try to meet again but that the next few weeks were crazy busy for me. He felt the same way so we said we’d try. That never really worked out but we still text each other occasionally and I think I’d like to keep in touch with him next semester. I usually see him at the library about once a week anyway so it shouldn’t be that hard. Maybe I’ll take him up on that burger sometime. Until then, I can honestly say I learned a lot from talking to Khedir, who by the way is trying to adopt the name Eric, so if you ever meet him, that might be how he introduces himself. It was interesting to see what a person from another country but educated in the United States thinks of us. They have a very interesting perspective because they have literally been inundated with both cultures and can see the good and the bad in both. This is a valuable resource and not one that should be underestimated in today’s increasingly small world. We are at the forefront of a major shift from national sovereignty to globalization and the unique outlook that people like Khedir have should not be taken for granted.
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