It was snowing the day we came to Reyhanli. Even though it was back in 2010, I remember it very well. As the flakes came down, my siblings and I rushed outside to play. We were enjoying the unusual weather, but our fun was cut short when our parents called us in. They told us we had to leave our village right away. 

We were promised we’d only be gone for a short while and come back when conditions were better, but since crossing the Turkish border, we haven’t been able to return.

My uncle was the one who took us on the day-long journey. It was so sudden, so we didn’t have much packed. The trip was tiring, and the weather was extreme. I remember crying from the cold. We were smuggled across the border, and it was incredibly difficult. Once we made it, we stayed at our cousin’s house until we were able to get our own place.

I’ve lived half over half of my childhood in Reyhanli, but to be honest, it wasn’t that great a childhood. Be it the difficulty of acclimating or just the situation in general, it’s been pretty difficult. Two years ago, I transferred to a Turkish school, and being that I didn’t speak much Turkish, it was really hard. Honestly, I feel like I’m much different than other people because I really, really love our mother tongue, Arabic. I wish I get to speak it more.  

The reality is that I sometimes feel like I’m starting to forget words in Arabic. Any word really, like pen or book. Instead, I say them in Turkish. Little by little, I feel like learning Turkish is beginning to impact my Arabic. I try to read more Arabic books and learn vocabulary. I spend my time reading Arabic poetry and diving deep into the language. This is the one resource that I have to hang onto my language. 

I joined Karam House around 2018, and it honestly has been the best time of my life. I look forward to the weekend so that I can finally go back to Karam House and take part in the studios and continue working on my projects.

The most unique project I worked on was in the Cyborgs studio. We had to make a sort of mask that fits on the face, and it has an eye/contact that you can switch out. I got the idea from a cartoon called The Titans. One of the character’s names was Cyborg, and he used to have a tool for his eye that would spark and release fire. It was a really hard project because you have to think about where you’re going to find the eye, how the eye is going to move, what the project is going to look like, but in the end, it worked out perfectly. 

Karam House is a place you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

This place helps students figure out who they want to be in the future because the workshops expose us to such a variety of skills and possible life paths. The best thing about Karam House, though, is the way we are treated. You’re not average here. Instead, you get to be someone great. You meet a lot of role models here, too. Every mentor is a role model to me, and the people are so unique and special. When I graduate from here, it’s going to be really hard for me.

In the future, I want to be a psychologist. I feel that people with psychological issues face a lot of injustice in our society, and nobody wants to sit and speak with them. I’ve already started researching mental illnesses little by little and learning more about them. 

When I think of Syria, I think of Eid and Ramadan. Although I was small, I remember how amazing these times were. I try to recall events and remind myself of what it was like so that I don’t forget. My ultimate hope for the future of Syria is for the war to be over and to return. It won’t be the Syria I know — the streets, the buildings, the cars, the traffic won’t be the same. It will, however, be the land that is called Syria, and that’s what’s important.