By: Anjay Kottapalli

In 2021, A teenager with a family of 10 fled Kabul, Afghanistan as the Taliban swiftly took the city. In the chaos and frenzy that was the evacuation of Kabul, the teenager, whose initials are BH, got separated from his family in the stampeding crowds.

Unable to contact his family he was forced to go on a cargo plane to Qatar where he contacted his mom who was very scared and sad. After that he went to the United States of America without family along with 80,000 others who escaped the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan. He got an apartment and enrolled at Alexandria City High School as a junior.”He studied hard and worked, doing odd jobs, and was not able to socialize much.” (npr) This shows how hard BH had to work to get money to survive. Eventually the school found out about his situation and contacted the church, who would help not just him but others by helping fund their rent using money from the church.

Congress introduced a bill that would speed up residency for Afghans but Republicans slowed putting the bill in effect by arguing that the Afghans could be suspected of crimes and some were not fully vetted. The new bill would include additional screening. BH seems luckier than others as he doesn’t struggle with English and his application for asylum was accepted.

He’s going to get a scholarship and send money to his family when he can. A resident of the Goodwin house also helped BH Because his family fled the Nazi’s during ww2. During Eid BH is sad because he can’t celebrate it without family. He mourns the fall of his country and the memories he had in Kabul, celebrating holidays with families and friends. BH is an example of many people who have hardships living in America after their exodus from Afghanistan. For now, BH still continues to live in his small apartment complex in Alexandria.