Rufaida

AGE 15

Hey, this is about a girl. She was nine and a half years old when she left Iraq. She had friends – they were her sisters and neighbours and like her BFFs. But she had to leave not only her friends but all her family and other people she’d known since she was young. With her mum and dad she was going to a country that she didn’t know that much about, even though they had been there once for three months – Syria.

She lived in Syria for five and a half years. She moved around between lots of houses and lots of schools – about nine different schools. She met lots of people and lost lots of people and never got the chance to say goodbye to them – was never able to see them ever again. But even the ones she got the chance to say goodbye to, she was able to let them go because she didn’t want to be stuck in her past. She knew there was a future waiting for her and a life to live. So she just closed her eyes and imagined saying goodbye to them.

She never ever thought how, where or who she was going to meet in Syria. She had lots of crazy, stupid, weird, sad, happy and funny memories, lots of crying, lots of tears and lots of laughter. She knew lots of people who almost took her to the edge and those people really knew how to make her hate them so much. But with all the haters and all the ups and downs she had, there was always something or someone who could make her laugh, make her happy and just let her forget all the anger and all those crazy people. Sometimes it was a song, a stupid story, a friend, an actor in some TV show – all these small little things could really make her mood great. But most of all it was writing that relieved her (and still relieves her) because she could express all her emotions. It gave her the right to fly in the writing sky with no one judging her hair or her clothes or her attitude or ever telling her what to do, as that’s how it was in her community. She had to live with it whether she liked it or not. She had to accept the fact that she was living in it – but she wasn’t okay with it. She remembered her friend when she told him about it and how her voice wasn’t ever being heard. Her friend said you can make it heard; you can change things if you want to. And she did. She left Syria and thought she could keep her name in their minds. She learned from her friend it’s okay if you lost once … twice … it doesn’t matter how many times you lose, it’s enough that you try. She told her teachers how it’s okay if you laugh and tried to have fun, even though it was so bad out there.

And then she went to Australia. So many things have changed for her here. It’s safe here and she can sleep like a baby at night. People are nice and friendly. It’s different being a girl here – no one can hurt her or tell her what to do. She can be her own self.

She came here for a better life. She wants to finish school, and go to Japan, and study psychology, and be a great _______ . And she will because she is Rufaida and that is her story.