Isaac Hatch

To make this post a little easier to read, I’ll try my best to reference a couple of movies. As you are all in a DMA class, I hope you will appreciate my efforts to hold your attention.

I was born and spent most of my life living in the United Arab Emirates. Yes, that is where parts of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Furious 7 took place. Respectively, those movies were set in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, neither of which were the city where I grew up. However, both were only an hour and a half away and easy to visit.

Even though I loved both films and realize they were overly ridiculous, I still don’t appreciate how they misrepresent the UAE. No, there are no sandstorms in the city. No, there is not a puny desert road going from the airport to the city, since the airport happens to be in the city. And no, there aren’t girls with revealing bikinis on the beach or at parties, probably because they would most likely be arrested.

Nonetheless, I love movies that include the UAE, and one reason I am looking forward to the new Star Wars is that some of it was filmed in Abu Dhabi.

Now that I’ve ranted for over 200 words about where I grew up, I should probably tell you something else about myself. I’m a bit like Duncan in The Way Way Back insomuch that I’m awkward and accepting of what comes at me.

I also love Jesus, and that should come before everything else.