I came to the U.S. in order to get a great education, and to make my family and my country proud. I thought coming to the U.S. and getting education was the only important thing for me. Even though my education truly was important and still is, I discovered something that now gives a meaning to my life - my passion to build friendship between different cultures, and to raise awareness of diversity in my community.
When I first came to the U.S., I found myself in a place where people were from different countries, cultures, and spoke different languages. It was a change from Afghanistan, where I lived and grew up with people of the same culture and language. I didn?t even know what it would be like to meet a person who speaks in English, so I was nervous about living with an American family and going to an American school.
After the first few months of my attendance at Burlington High School, my art teacher recommended that I join the International Club, and that I would find it interesting. Later I found out that she was right. It was very exciting to meet kids not only from the U.S., but also from Africa, China, France, Spain and some other places. I can speak five languages, and I enjoyed in particular meeting other people who I could speak to in their own language.
At the end of the school year the International Club hosted something called a Flag Assembly; it was a really nice event where all the international students would walk around a big hall holding their home country flags, and exchange them at the end with the U.S. flag.
I was the first person in the alphabetical order, so was the first to walk around the hall, where everyone would be looking at us and would applaud in honor of our flags. It was a very important day for me to be able to hold up Afghanistan?s flag among the flags of countries from all over the world. I went into some deep thoughts, while trying to feel the significance of this event.
I looked at the representative of each country holding his or her flag, and they looked as excited as I was. Suddenly, I heard someone calling my name to start going towards the hall. After a minute I found myself in the middle of the hall, and I was holding up Afghanistan?s flag as the photographers, teachers, and other students watched. I felt strong and proud, for being present at this peaceful moment when all of the flags were there representing the different countries. I felt love, and respect for all of the other flags, and slowly my tears came down my cheeks.
This moment made me realize how much I was passionate about living for others, respecting other cultures and loving the idea of thinking of the world as one big family.
I applied to Kent School that year, which is a private high school, and I considered myself lucky to get in and to spend the remainder of my high school years there. Inspired by my experience at Burlington High School, I started an International Club at Kent School in order to build better relations between kids from different cultures. Burlington High School had a strong international body compared to Kent School, and it was important for me to create a similar environment at my new school.
I announced the new club in our school?s chapel where I was giving a speech about Afghanistan, and my experience in the US. I dressed in typical Afghan dress to show the audience my native culture (I still remember that one of my teachers complemented that I looked like a living Christmas tree!), and told the audience:
After my speech many students came to me, and joined the club, and I was really excited to get so many members. The first activity that we did was to watch the movie ?Osama? (the story of an Afghan girl who has to become a boy during the Taliban regime), which was a very touching movie. Some of the club members even volunteered to help me in raising money to send to ?Pennies for Peace Project? to educate Afghan and Pakistani kids.
The success of the International Club reminded me of how happy I was to be a student at Kent School, where people appreciate having kids from different cultures, and want to know more about them.
I have been the only Muslim girl to wear a hijab (head scarf) at Kent School, which makes me different from every other student. Therefore, my friends, the faculty members, and the school staff have asked me the reason for wearing it, and I have always appreciated their curiosity and have been happy to answer their questions. When I was asked if I would like to chant from the Holy Quran in the chapel, I was honored to represent the Muslim faith.