Rohingyalish Class
Who are the Rohingya? Where do they come from? These children looked so different from my other students. They were Muslim, not Buddhist. They were slightly darker-skinned. They didn’t speak Burmese. They looked so different from my Karen, Chin, and Kachin students who had come from Myanmar.
American Burmese Celebrity
How to become a celebrity in a country that your friends don’t even know exists
An Education Disrupted
It took moving across the world for me to realize just how much I took education for granted. And it took moving across the world for me to realize just how hard people fight for their education. Sadly, a lot of times, they lose the battle and end up in the workforce at age 12.
The problem with the Five Year Plan
If you asked me about my Five Year Plan when I was a senior in high school, I would have given you a perfectly rehearsed elevator pitch. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life and it seemed like there was nothing stopping me.
Introduction
“What in the world am I doing here?”
I stood in front of a small mirror in my room. My face resembled that of a Smurf, covered in blue whiteboard marker ink. My shirt and arms were covered in raw egg.
One Day at a Time
Refugees do not assume they will be waiting for someone or something for years. If they knew how long they would be waiting, they would lose hope. They just take it one day at a time. One Day at a Time The first and probably most important lesson I learned from my Rohingya friends is […]
If I Was Still in Myanmar
Some day, this Rohingya community will be flooded with educated Rohingya girls. We’ll be overwhelmed with job applications from qualified, educated Rohingya women. But for now, it’s my role to encourage girls like Hasina to continue pursuing their education so that they can be the real world changers. They will be the ones to show the girls that one pen, one notebook, and one teacher can change the world.
The story isn’t over yet
“I am a Rohingya Muslim. This is my story.”
Time
“This is a man who cherished his time and lived each moment as if it were his last. He has touched so many lives, including mine. I just wish we all had more time with him.” Time Time. It stands still, yet flies by. We take it for granted, yet cherish every second. And in […]
Every Second of the Day
“When I first saw Roshida in America, she was a different person. She had a phone. That means she had her family back.” Every Second of the Day Roshida grabs her phone, presses the call button, and props it up against the water bottle on the table. Within two seconds, someone on the other line picks […]