Sacrifice
Sitting in my seat on the airplane and hearing the doors shut, the surrealness of the moment still has not set in. I have thought and dreamt about this day for so long that it felt like it would never come true. The day I would visit what I call my homeland for the first time. The place where my parents, their parents, and all of their ancestors had grown up and lived and had called home. Realizing that I was only an airplane ride and a border crossing away from living my dream day felt so surreal that it was hard to grasp the significance of the moment truly.
Growing up, I heard so many stories and tales about the beauty of Palestine. I also heard of the many harrowing and devastating stories of the lives of the residents. Even though I was born and raised in the United States, my parents and grandparents did everything they could to ensure that I knew about my homeland and built my connection to it from the moment I could comprehend it.
My parents were born and raised in a small town outside Ramallah, Palestine. They have known each other for all of their lives, as is common in most small towns in Palestine. They were born one day apart, with my dad being the older one. They grew up playing together outside from sunrise until sunset. I remember my dad telling me stories of how he knew from age seven that he would marry my mother one day. As they got older and hit puberty, they weren’t allowed to hang out or talk as it was not permissible.
Over the years, my father realized that my mother was the one for him, so he worked tirelessly to build a life that my grandfathers would be impressed with so they would allow their marriage. My father worked every job he could so they could acknowledge his dedication to becoming a man that my mother was worthy of. They were married by the age of twenty-one and had me by the age of twenty-three.
When my parents decided to have children, they were worried that if they were to stay in Palestine, they would not be able to provide the life they wanted for their children. They had decided to apply to a Greencard Lottery, where you apply to it, and following a lottery system, they would choose a random application that would win the Greencard. They received their Visa to the United States the day before they found out my mother was pregnant with me. Within a week, they had packed up their entire life, booked their tickets, and got on an airplane to the United States, where they knew no one. All they did know was that they had to leave their home, family, and everything they knew for their children’s future.
