Mohammad A
LA-1
June 28, 1995

Mohammad ***** ******, that's my full name and if you didn't know already, I was not born in America. I moved to Seattle from Afghanistan in 1987. Because Seattle is so diverse, I was not ashamed or embarrassed about who I was, the way I dressed or the way I acted. I was simply accepted for who I was. In Afghanistan, I thought I had to act a certain way in order to fit in, but in Seattle I do what I want to do and I don't have to make other people happy. I can feel at peace here. I can also live without fear in Seattle.

I'm 18 now, and I've been in Seattle for almost 9 years. I've done a lot of things here because I've basically grown up in Seattle. I rode my first bike here; I remember going to the movies and going bowling; and I also made my first basket here. I was at Bryant Elementary School and I saw some kids throwing a ball at a circle. I thought it would be easy for me to throw the ball and make the basket, but it was much more difficult than that. I tried a couple of times and the other kids laughed and made fun of me because I couldn't get the ball to go into the basket. After that I practiced a lot and now I'm going to play on the varsity team at Cleveland High School.

There is another thing that Seattle has which Afghanistan still does not have--- peace. I remember in Afghanistan I would be sleeping peacefully and would be awakened by gunfire at 2 or 3 in the morning. Even though we were one of the more fortunate people there and we lived in the best neighborhood, we still could not get away from the continuous violence between the government and the "the freedom fighters" called the Mujahideen. Almost every night, gunfire would disturb my dreams and I thought I would never finish my dream of peace. I remember my brothers and I walking behind our house, which was on a hill. We came upon an unexploded rocket which had landed about seventy yards from my house. This was so familiar to us that my brothers and I just ignored it and kept playing and having fun. My family was looking for a better life and so we decided to move from Afghanistan to Pakistan before my brothers or I were drafted into the army. Because in Afghanistan you will be drafted and often taken to the army as soon as you're in your teens. My brothers were already in their teens and I would be a teenager soon. We couldn't just tell the government that we were leaving, so we got packed and left without telling anybody, not even our closest relatives knew about us leaving illegally. It took us about five days and nights of constant traveling to get to Pakistan. We would walk, or if it was our turn, we would ride the horses and mules; we were really burned out by traveling all this way.When we got to America, I felt like I was free. Once we stepped off the plane in Seattle my family felt like we had gotten away from the violence. I've grown up in Seattle and it will always be my home!