The Afterword

Tag: refugee

  • If I Had One Wish

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    by

    Peter
    in

    The genie grants you a wish. What is it? If a genie appeared and offered me one wish, I don’t think I’d need much time to decide. I’d give the wish away. I already have enough. I’ve lived a fortunate life. Of course there are things I could wish were different, but I don’t feel…

  • What Would I Change About Modern Society?

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Not everything that matters can be measured. Not generosity.Not endurance.Not the quiet resilience of a young man who studies through grief,or the kindness of a woman who smiles even when she misses her mother’s funeral. In my eight years as principal of a university college, I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside students who arrived…

  • Still, I Stay

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    by

    Peter
    in

    —from the voice of a Syrian in exile I have never stopped dreaming of the olive trees.Even now,in this camp of sand and plastic walls,I see them when I close my eyes—the way their shadows fell across my grandfather’s fieldbefore everything cracked and scattered. Home is a scent that never fades.It lives in cardamom coffee,in…