Omar J. El-Shabrawy ( عمر جعفر الشبراوي ) was born in Seattle, Washington on April 14th 1987 to father Mohamed El-Shabrawy (September 11th 1957) Chairman of an international trading company (IT&M) and mother May El-Malky (May 28th 1961). Omar was born an American citizen; however, his parents were Egyptians living in the United States since 1984.

His parents were married in 1981 and gave birth to his sister Yasmin El-Shabrawy (May 13th 1982) and moved to Seattle where Mohamed’s family lived. One year after Omar was born, his parents decided to move back to Egypt where they can have their children raised as they were by their families. Omar and Yasmin then attended Misr Language Schools (MLS), where Omar graduated in 2004, an joined MSA University where he graduated in the summer of 2008 with a degree in Marketing & International Business with a total GPA score 3.49.

After graduation Omar did not start work right away, took some time off and took the job search process slowly, until his father had a stroke and was rushed to the “Dar Al Fouad” emergency room on 10.10.2008 his graduation night, “when I went up there to receive my diploma, I looked down at their seat and saw no one, I never felt more alone” Omar said about that night. His father spent about a month in recovery, with on and off visits to the hospital.

Late 2008, his father’s health was starting to improve, Omar starting working part time as a researcher in his dad’s office from December 2008 to January 2009, until he got hired at Coface Egypt, as a Business Research Executive, then was promoted twice before the end of 2009.

Education: Omar spent all his school years in MLS (Misr Language Schools) a private English language school with good reputation. Omar was an average student, not very social although, “I was never bullied nor was I ever the captain of the sport’s team, I was more harmless and a little invisible to some people” Omar says about his popularity status in high school “I was a goody good boy mostly, never took a risk, never got in trouble, I avoided getting in trouble, which did not help my social status at the time”.

In pre-school, he was the perfect student, loved all his teachers was good in all subjects, but his favorite were English and Art class, where he felt like he excelled the most.

Omar’s English accent has been one of his skills all his life, whether it was in school, university, socially and in work too.

In high school, Omar failed in Physics, which could’ve prevented him from graduating with his class, however, he took a retest in the summer, in which he spent studying. The incident affected him deeply, and made him get a glimpse of what the future and college might be like.

Family: The Malky’s (Omar’s mother) was a big half Greek family, Omar had a lot of cousins growing up, and they were very close unlike other families at the time. His father’s side of the family mostly lived in the United States, and even the ones in Egypt were not very close to Omar and his family.

Omar did not have any brothers, and his cousins were his brothers and best friends till he turned 18 and joined college. Omar’s parents were not over protective of him, they gave him space but taught him boundaries, in fact he had more space than his sister growing up, never had a curfew usually got what he wanted, which he usually earned with his good manners and obedience.

His sister however was always in trouble, had a lot of friends, very social and kind of rebellious. Omar started to socialize more when he graduated high school, where he was known to be quiet, polite and shy. Omar didn’t like that image, as he was very talkative, humorous and talented among his cousins, but he did not care to prove otherwise as he did not care very much for the kids at his school.

Among the family, Omar was the goody good boy, never talked back to his parents, never got in trouble, never broke anything and everyone was pleasant to see him every Friday on the family gathering.

Every Friday, the Malky family would gather for dinner at Omar’s grandparents’ house in Heliopolis, Cairo whom he called (Papoo and Yaya) all his life. Friday was the family’s favorite most special day, as they all gathered to eat, talk, laugh, share and catch up with their cousins on their lives. It was a very special and unique day for Omar as a child, as he didn’t have that many friends, and would count the days to Friday when he’d meet his cousins.

Their family’s closeness was because Omar’s Greek grandmother Helen (1928 - 2008), she was an Orthodox woman, loving, caring, funny, understanding, generous, kind typical Greek mother. Everyone in the family shared a couple of memories with her, and her death affected Omar deeply emotionally.

Like any family in the world, Omar’s family suffered some problems, however, he never felt comfortable discussing any of it with his friends, as he was a very private person.

More to come…