If I had to write out my life story, it would be full of love and safety, with the knowledge of home and with the freedom to run, skip, play. But, my childhood is not a reflection of most others. I had my fair share of problems, but I have been abundently blessed in safety.
Farah Ahmedi's childhood was drastically different than mine. Farah and I are almost the same age, she a few years younger than I am, but her life story is more of a story to me. It's hard for me to read her memories of growing up in a country where she had to watch carefully where she stepped in fear of a mine, or where she would just go about life after a rocket struck the neighbors house. I've never feared leaving my home without a male. I've never considered how you do not have peripheral vision in a chadari. But reading Farah's words, I began to see a person who has triumphed, who has been victorious, who has committed her life to God.
I've also been inspired through Farah's story to continue to pursue the desires in my heart to be a servant - to women and young girls. To seek after being a friend and sister to those who are finding themselves in a different world far removed from what they have known. Farah came to America as a refugee. She lived in this country, in my country where I had a safe and loving childhood, in fear. A few beautiful people reached out to her, helping her and loving her along the way. My prayer is that we will all be like those people. That we will be used for restoration and healing through our Father in the lives of others and in this broken world. Here is the jacket to Farah's story. With each of us buying a copy of her book, we are helping Farah thrive in a very tangible way. Blessings.
Farah Ahmedi is born into the world just as the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets reaches its peak in Afghanistan. Bombs are falling all over her country, and her native Kabul is swelling with hundreds of thousands of people looking for homes and jobs. The sounds of gunfire and fighter planes are as normal to Farah as the sounds of traffic or children playing are to a schoolgirl in America. When Farah steps on a land mine on her way to school, her world becomes much smaller than the dreams and hopes in her heart. She begins to learn--slowly--that ordinary people, often strangers, have immense power to save lives and restore hope.
The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky recounts an epic journey. It deftly interweaves a childhood in Afghanistan, where the classrooms are naked chambers with only chalkboards on the walls and are filled with more students than seats (and no books), with an American adolescence, where teenagers struggle to decide whether to try out for school plays, whom to take to the homecoming dance, and where to go to college. In Kabul, they cancel school because of rockets and bombings; in Chicago, Farah might have a snow day. In Kabul, a schoolgirl wears a black dress and a white headscarf; in America, girls need the right jeans and trendy tops.
Thanks to a number of good people who crossed her path at critical moments, Farah is thriving. She may be haunted by her past, but she is no longer enslaved by it. She is actively enjoying the realization of her childhood dreams; she's an Afghan American, free to learn, work, support herself, and choose her own path. She'll graduate from high school soon and is being recruited by some of the best colleges in the world.
Farah is living proof that not only can the human heart endure, it can also thrive. Even in war, there are miracles. Even when limbs are amputated, we are whole. Even in refugee camps, dreams come true. Even when fathers and siblings die young, there is love. The Story of My Life is our new great American memoir.
