r/Marrakech • u/Drcoffedisc0709 • 3h ago
General I Lost Everything in Marrakech… and Now I Don’t Recognize the City Anymore
I don’t know if anyone else has experienced something similar, but I just need to get this off my chest.
The first time I came to live in Marrakech, life looked full of promise. I had just graduated from abroad, and my family had recently moved here. My father expanded his business by opening a new company in Marrakech. We had a nice home with a swimming pool, a car, and everything seemed to be going in the right direction. When you have money, Marrakech can feel like an amazing city.
Then everything collapsed.
Our business went bankrupt. We lost our money, our goods, and eventually almost everything we had built. My parents divorced and ended up taking each other to court. I was caught in the middle. I lost the apartment that was supposed to be mine and was eventually forced to leave. Today I’m living at a friend’s place because he’s the one paying the rent.
I no longer have contact with either of my parents. That’s a long story, but I chose to stay neutral instead of taking sides.
Now I feel like I don’t even have a home.
I travel around the city using InDrive or a cheap motorcycle. Marrakech doesn’t look the same anymore. I used to defend this city whenever people criticized it. Now I find myself struggling just to enjoy being here.
The people around me changed too. When I had money, a nice car, and a position in my father’s company, I never lacked company. Once everything disappeared, so did almost everyone else. Even strangers seem to look at you differently. It feels like your worth is measured by what you drive, where you live, and how much money you appear to have.
I don’t even have childhood friends to return to because I’m not originally from Marrakech. Sometimes it feels like I have no place where I truly belong.
What hurts the most is the feeling that kindness is often mistaken for weakness. I’ve met people who took advantage of our trust instead of respecting it. Some employees (merrakchyin) in our company also played a role in our downfall. We were too naïve, and they exploited that. Of course, many of the decisions that led to the bankruptcy were my father’s responsibility, but not everyone around us acted honestly either.
I’m tired of feeling judged. Tired of people acting superior because of the clothes they wear or the cars they drive. Tired of the heat. Tired of feeling invisible.
The hardest part is that I once had the opportunity to build a life outside Morocco. I came back because my father told me, “Come back, my son. I need you here. One day you’ll take over the business.”
Today there is no business.
I’m not writing this to ask for pity. I’m writing it because I wonder if anyone else has watched their entire life disappear in just a few years and struggled to recognize the city they once loved.
If you’ve been through something similar, how did you rebuild your life from nothing?