A War Torn Peace 

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My name is Sina Naebkhil, I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1985.   

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This is my story of peace.  

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I was born in war. From my birth, up until this very moment the pursuit of peace has been what I have always longed for.   

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Running after peace when my parents decided to flee Afghanistan in 1987 and  creating a ‘normal’ life in India. 

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India with its loud, busy bustle but where love and peace are the foundation of almost every street name and building erected India was where I felt true peace.  

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CANADA, the symbol of peace is where my feet landed me next (shout out to my mom and dad who made that decision).  

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Landing in the midst of a winter storm, where comfort was the last feeling, peace was the last notion. In a violent blizzard, having flown from the sweltering heat, reminders of the fear in my mother’s eyes as she could not hide her fear of flying. That was the first time I remember seeing what actual fear looked like. It is the indescribable fear, it is the fear that you don’t know when it will end, it is the fear of the unknown.   

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Far away from the peace that was my home in India, I watched my mother and father frantically negotiate life in Kitchener,  and  Toronto Ontario, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and finally Windsor, Ontario.  

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I live in Canada, I was educated here, I grew up here. I am Canadian. Yet peace is the farthest feeling I have in this country. In the pursuit of ‘normalizing’ myself to this country, I have watched as parts of me have been eroded or put away. 

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I am Afghan yet peace is the farthest feeling I have. In pursuit of ‘normalizing’ myself to this country, I have watched as parts of me, the ‘Canadian’ me have been rejected.  

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I am not Canadian, because I am Afghan I am not Afghan, because I am Canadian. 

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 This is a story of peace though…Because up until now, it’s all the external identities that I have sought peace in. Until I was forced to look within.  

 

Peace Out! 

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by: Sina Naebkhil