By: Anonymous Class of 2025

Many of us have warm memories of leaving home to begin a new adventure. Maybe when you  were a young boy or girl, and you went off to summer camp in Maine for the first time. Or  maybe when your parents proudly dropped you off at Hebron Academy and you began your life as a boarding student. 

My memories of leaving Afghanistan in August 2021 to come to the United States are a little  different. We had to flee the Taliban with one day’s notice, struggle through screaming crowds  and loud gunfire to reach Kabul Airport, spend four days huddled inside the airport praying for  an evacuation flight, and inside a packed military-transport plane during the long flight to Qatar and safety. 

These memories still make me sad—and a little afraid. But then I have other memories— beautiful memories—like the day my host family here at Hebron, the Frumientos, took me to their home for the first time. “This house is for you,” their mother, Laurie, said, “this is your home. You should always feel comfortable here.” 

Then they showed me my room, and I shut the door and cried. I cried about  everything I had left behind, but also about everything I had gained. A wonderful new school. A  sense of safety and security. A loving host family whose kindness I can never repay. 

I am so grateful for all that Hebron has provided. So many teachers and advisors have worked  tirelessly for my success. I want to give special thanks to Mr. Hanby, Mrs. Dunbridge, and Mrs. Willer, who were always there for me. I will carry the lessons I have learned at Hebron for the  rest of my life. 

But to be honest, nothing I have learned here, or what I will learn in college, will be more  important than the lessons I learned from my father. He was and will always be my greatest teacher. 

My father loved to study, but as a young man he had to leave school and go to work to support  his family. I am the oldest, and my father wanted all of  his children to get great educations—especially his daughters. 

I think that’s why he was so  determined for me to go to school, even though I was born in a small village where most  families thought it was a scandal for girls to go to school. 

In fact, when I started school as a young child, many of the families in our village changed their  attitudes towards us. People stopped visiting our house. My parents’ friends turned their backs  on them. That’s when my parents decided we would move to a city, where it was more common for girls to go to school. 

But even there, people objected.  That’s when my father decided I should go to SOLA, my  all-girls boarding school in Kabul.

His life-changing decision for me to go to SOLA is what eventually led me to Hebron, and the life  I have today. 

When he dropped me off at SOLA for the first time, he said to me: 

“Be strong and  passionate in your life. 

Don’t listen when people say you can’t do something because you are a  girl. Become the person everyone is fighting to be.” 

That’s what I am trying to do. Thank you to Hebron for helping me become the person I am  fighting to be.