haslinda: christopher karam. welcome to "highfliers." good to have you with us. christopher: thank you for having me. haslinda: you are born in the 1980's, but it was a coincidence and a love story. christopher: i was born to an american mother and lebanese father. the way the lebanese father ended up in the united states was by a scholarship. there was a civil war in lebanon that lasted 25 years and that made it difficult for him to continue his education. a best friend applied on his behalf to the university of texas. and he got a scholarship to go there. he moved there. my mother, out of 40,000 students fell in love with the only lebanese guy who had no money, and when he finished his education, wanted to go back home. christopher: because he was very much a family man. haslinda: blame it on the stars. christopher: right. and so, when he had to move back, my mother was adamant on moving with him to lebanon. when she ended up in lebanon, it was in the middle of the civil war. so bombs were going off left and right. it was not the safest place to be at that time.