Laya Mosto

So all of this happened when I was 13 as well.

So by the end of 2012, which I was 13, we were in Dubai at the time.

Yes.

And dealing with kids who were mean.

Yeah.

Kids are not nice.

Who also just like...

probably don't understand what you've been going through at all.

No, especially in Dubai.

I think people there are pretty sheltered, and a lot of them are pretty privileged.

I think you see Dubai, and you see these glamorous pictures, and you see all these buildings and whatever, but that's not the reality for everybody.

But for me, coming immediately out of Syria and being so overwhelmed, and I'm in class with kids who have no idea what conflict is like, who can go back home in the summer and, you know,

have just their regular life which is like great for them but I was put in class in the middle of like a Tuesday in the middle of the week and I was like okay like I guess we're here now I mean I did learn things in English in Sierra but in Dubai the entire curriculum was in English so I had to like learn what a like parallelogram is in English like relearn physics and chemistry in English this is insane

Yeah, which I mean, I knew some of it, but it just was another level of like having to relearn everything.

Yeah.

But I think that was the only area in my life that I had control over, my education.

So it gave you a focus.

It gave me a focus.

It gave me a distraction, even though it was like the hardest thing to focus on.

Sure.