We choose to keep them, to make the effort, to maintain the bonds that bind us.
The country where I was born is like my family. I was born into it out of sheer chance. Like
everything else, some families are better equipped than others and some are dysfunctional
and less able to provide and nurture for one reason or another. Syria holds no hope for me. I
needed to live somewhere where I can build a life for myself and my daughters. Somewhere
that they can be safe and warm and fed. Somewhere they don't need to be terrified falling
asleep each night.
So, this is the home that I chose to make my life in. Belfast is the family that I chose for
myself. Once alien, now familiar. The term familiarity is born from the word family isn't it?
The streets that I played on as a child were as familiar to me as the lines that run on the back
of my own hand. I knew where every street led, the shortcut to get to the shop and which
neighbour had a dog that barked loudly in the night. I have been forced to run away from my
family but I ran into the arms of a friend.
You will never know any place as well as the place that you grew up and explored in your
childhood, but I know that one day, my children will know the streets of Belfast better than I,
because here is where they flourish. They will grow and play and explore with their friends.
They will have a childhood.
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