I was born in a land that is now known to many as a dream land. This land is called the United Arab Emirates.

I am from a small Emirate named Ajman, although I've been traveling from Emirate to Emirate since my school days. I studied in Sharjah and Ajman. I was one of the Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Scholars and started visiting Abu Dhabi recently. I work in Dubai and I often travel to Abu Dhabi for events. Whenever I go to a city in the Emirates, I learn and discover how these Emirates are different than before. I might have seen some differences, but as locals we all have one spirit, which is loving our nation proudly. We may all come from different backgrounds, but in the UAE we all are one. We don't differentiate between people. We don't care where you come from or what your nationality is, because the UAE is a multinational country where diversity is welcomed.

I'm so proud of myself as a local and even more after being one of the SMSP scholars. This program gave me a new identity as a global citizen. A global citizen is a mixture of a global and a local citizen. SMSP opened my mind and let me discover, challenge, learn and embrace every opportunity in different ways from a more international perspective.

Many other Emiratis like myself know it isn’t easy to take risks, but our sheikhs motivated us from day one to accept challenges. Life is complicated, yet one must never stop believing in achieving one’s dreams. One of the dreams that we as a nation have achieved is hosting Expo 2020, which Dubai won two days ago.