LOOKING SKY HIGH TO FIND MY WHY
Sara’s article published in Thrive Global.
While cooking a massive risotto dinner for my two growing boys – I quickly looked up from cooking to catch the TV screen when I heard “The Sudan Crisis” on CNN. My heart sunk as I saw numerous faces and families of survivors grieving from the tragedy of civil unrest, as bodies were being pulled from the Nile due to the devastating attacks killing over 100 people.
Although my two boys were so immersed in playing their hearts out in our living room, that they weren’t paying close attention to the coverage, I eventually turned the channel to keep my kids from possibly seeing any of the violent aftermath. With tears in my eyes, I went into the bathroom to gather myself. Although we have no TVs in my bathroom, there’s a mirror. Tears began to fall as I stared into the face of one more survivor who was lucky enough to escape civil war within the same region decades ago…me!
I was born in a refugee camp in the Sudan, where my parents met and married after escaping a civil war in their home country of Ethiopia as young vulnerable teenagers. An interesting dynamic in the Sudan during that time was there were no jobs for men. So, my Mom was the one working, and my Dad was the one most responsible for taking care of me and the house.
There were days where my dad had the equivalent of one dollar to his name, with no pay available for the household until the end of the week – and they had to feed me breakfast, lunch and dinner. Imagine the life decision of deciding who in our family eats today. However, my Dad did everything in his power to make sure I ate, even when that meant he couldn’t. Yet he maintained an unrelenting resiliency through his faith and dream to one day come to America.
YOU CANNOT BREAKDOWN WHAT CAN’T BE BROKEN
In the Sudan we would see an airplane flying above us and my dad would point to it and say:
“Sara Sara…look up! See that plane in the sky? One day we’re going to get on a plane like that and fly to America!” One day it’s going to happen.”
My dad had a vision, a purpose and understood that there was going to be more to our lives than forever living in a refugee camp with looming civil unrest, poverty and violence. His experience was not the experience he wanted for me. He had a dream and was determined to put our family on an entirely new trajectory to happiness, freedom and success.
I don’t think people realize how hard it is to come to the U.S. It’s not like you sign a piece of paper one day and someone approves. It takes years, dealing with all types of red tape, inefficiencies, and unjust interference. Yes, people may block a blessing for you to feel good about themselves, but that can’t break you when you have unbreakable faith in a dream.
At the age of four my parents were close to finalizing an arrangement to come to America, but someone who was supposed to help us purposely sabotaged everything, preventing this opportunity from happening. As heartbreaking as this was, my Dad still never lost hope.
Whenever a plane flew above us and my Dad would still point to it and tell me “Sara, one day we’re going to get on a plane and fly to America.”
There was even a time where the home next door to us caught on fire and spread to our place where I was alone and sleep next door with my cousin. My Dad rushed in and saved me and my cousin. Our entire home, which was just a small mudbrick adobe inside the refugee camp, burned down to the ground. They were only able to salvage 2 photos. We had to live with someone else in their small adobe home for the rest of our time at the refugee camp.
But still my Dad never lost hope. Even after losing everything he had, he never lost his dream. Which means he never lost focus on his “Why.” His “Why” was for ME to experience a life of absolute health, happiness, prosperity and freedom.
This ‘Why” was reinforced by his faith, which was reinforced through the visual of me …and the plane which symbolized the vehicle for how to achieve the dream. He made this dream a reality in his mind through his faith and imagination to boldly declare what he wanted in our lives. He then radiated this contagious energy through his heart into the atmosphere to make it happen. Which means he could never let an opportunity pass to feel the excitement of seeing a plane flying above us and tell me again and again “Sara – one day we’re getting on a plane and going to America.”
Click here to read more: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/looking-sky-high-to-find-my-why/