Hard Lessons

My Open Book story, Hard Lessons, is about the struggles my family and I faced in pursuing education across three generations. From my father being kept out of school in Afghanistan, to my siblings pulled from propaganda-filled classrooms in Pakistan, to my own dreams blocked as a refugee without citizenship, education was always out of reach. Yet I found my own way to learn, teaching myself English and eventually becoming a translator for the U.S. military. Today, I share how those hard lessons shaped my journey to America and the opportunities my children now have in school.

‍