I Was a Child in a War

I was born and raised in a war. I spent the first 20 years of my life in Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion. The war was always just a few months older than I was.

I have lost friends and family to war. I have seen my neighbors’ dead bodies. I know how it feels to learn that a bomb blast has damaged your school; to sleep and live with the sounds of gunshots and explosions, the sirens of ambulances and fire trucks;