ACQUIESCENCE

Acquiescence

Yumna
Photographer, filmmaker, writer and human being

People always romanticize travel. How eye opening it is, how glorious visiting beautiful places is, how it’s so nice to meet different types of people. I used to be the same way – but now I travel for work and all I can see are the horrible things about it. The stress, the time-consumption, the unreasonable high security, the classism, the environmental damage, the exploitation. Everything about it seems to have turned into a horrible monster reflecting the nature of human greed.

The moment I met these families, I felt like an idiot.

A few years ago I dedicated some of my own time to work with refugees from Syria. I heard their stories about trying to escape an actual nightmare. Many of these families had money to do it, but borders were shut down and the rest of the world was not welcoming them. They were essentially stuck, illegal, stateless, and had nowhere to go. Many disappeared into the winter nights to take boats across a shaky ocean with children and left everything else behind. They risked their entire lives to just find a safe place to be. Just a few days before, I had flown, from America, comfortably, and safely, to Turkey and to Lebanon to meet these people. To help them tell their stories. I had complained the entire time about luggage that had been missing, or having to wake up hours beforehand, and the terrible seats on a plane that felt like a sardine can.

The moment I met these families, I felt like an idiot. My life changed and I realised how much privilege I have – and how much I have to be grateful for.

#themakingofme

People always romanticize travel. How eye opening it is, how glorious visiting beautiful places is, how it’s so nice to meet different types of people. I used to be the same way...

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