Laya Mosto

I wasn't able to sleep.

I would be up all night.

I would like lay down on the couch in the living room just to like make sure like if there was a sniper or something that like the bullet wouldn't come through or I would like try to get water and like stay away from the window and everything.

That's all I could think about at the time.

It's like, you know, where to sit, how to sit, how to behave, how to carry myself.

And these things even stayed with me for a really long time.

And even after we left Syria, it was just like I was in survival mode for the longest time.

I think parts of me probably still are.

Of course.

All the time.

All the time.

So can we talk about leaving?

For sure.

So we left when I was 13.

In the beginning was a lot of like back and forth between like Syria, Lebanon, UAE, kind of just figuring out where we'd go.

And basically the only reason we're able to leave is that because my parents got a job.

So my dad got a job.

It was like a temp job in the beginning.

We lived in Lebanon for a little bit.

And then we moved to Dubai and he got like a permanent job there.