In 2015 a Syrian family left their beloveds, friends, neighbors, relatives and their home in search of a better life. They accepted drowning in the sea and falling down from the height of mountains to reach a place where they can breathe easily; without fear, somewhere far from bomb attacks, far from bloodshed and far from Isis. Days and nights they pitched and tilted the hills and mountains with a baby on their shoulders, they ran hungry and thirsty to reach to the other side of the sea where the sun was always shining, breeze was blowing, mom was cooking, dad could go out and be sure of coming back, at night they could sleep calmly. There, a herd of cows were not grazing in a field blown through with wild flowers, there was not anywhere by the name of Clock Tower square, but at least Alan could walk in the park without fear, he could play and study. Because of this they wanted to run quickly, jump over every obstacle and get themselves to the other side of the sea.
After weeks and months walking and running, finally they arrived in Turkey. From there, they could see the other side of the sea sharply etched. They were excited to go to the other side of the road. But mom was afraid of all this happiness. Her heart was pounding faster and faster. As if she was waiting for a bad accident, a bad news.
As they reached the beach, everything changed. They were among the most unwelcome and uninvited ones. Instead of the sun, the moon was shining, the breeze was not blowing, and there was no home, no park and no school. Even if there were some homes, parks and schools, there was not any Alan to live, to walk, to play and to study. Alan had gone to the bottom of the sea to play with the fish and tell the story of all the children of his homeland to the fish. Alan was dead! .
There, on the cold and moonlit beach, among the crying babies and the women worrying about the languages they didn’t speak, mom whispered in Alan’s ears “oh, but if they saw, my darling. Even half of what you have. If only they saw, they would say kinder things, surely.”

Homa Osyan, 10th grade student at pegah High School

Inspired by”Sea Prayer”, Written by Khaled Husseini