Taha Salman

I just want to start off by saying, I hated school! I didn’t like the word school itself. What I hated the most about school was the boy’s restroom oh my god… it really STINKS bad, I used to go to school for two days and skip the rest of the week back in my home country of Iraq. Teachers there were terrible…They hit us really hard with a thick wooden stick that was the size of my arm.

I remember when I was in 5th grade my science teacher wanted us to remember two long pages. He gave us time to study, but I was distracted with friends and family. Even my parents didn’t think it was that important to go to school because they needed my help and they knew it wasn’t a good school. In my country, if you failed an assignment, the teacher would legitimately throw the students at the wall and embarrassed them in front of everyone. When that happened, I got really mad and seeked revenge. When everybody was dismissed from school there was this cloud of dust from students walking and running. I found a rock and hit the teacher and ran away fast. The teacher never found out it was me.

Most of my childhood was working and causing troubles, I was a troublemaker. Everyone was part of a group (the equivalent to a gang). Since I was always in trouble for fighting, I was the leader of my group. We used to beat people for no reason, but that backfired when I was attacked by a few guys from an opposing group. I went home that day with 2 black eyes, ripped clothes, and no shoes.

So in 2003, the war started and I couldn’t finish school because of the war. People were killed, bullets sprayed all over the buildings. It was dangerous; a guy tried to bomb our school and destroyed it, but there was a guard standing in the field. He ran after him and held him. The guy blew himself up killing the guard and couple students. I was lucky because I was absent on that day and from that day on my parents forbidden me from going to school.

My parents decided that Baghdad was a place in which we could no longer stay, so we packed our bags and left. Our new destination was Syria. We had family there that could house us until we could stand on our own feet once again. I had to discontinue my mischievous behavior for the sake of my family. Syria was different than Iraq, socially and culturally. The language was little different, people’s attitudes were different and school was different. We were safe from our previous menace, but every positive comes with a negative. In our own hidden way we were total outsiders. We didn’t know much about the Syrian customs, so locals started seeing us as a bother.

School was awkward, I never knew what anyone was saying but I knew they were all talking about me. I was still very young. I was in the school yard playing soccer with the boys in school, it seemed to be the only way I could communicate. When I was playing I accidentally shoved a boy whose mother was the principal of my new school. I tried to ease the situation by apologizing to the boy, but he wanted to show the dominance he had over me, so he knocked me down and started beating me. Even with the shape of his hand printed across my cheek, I was still called to the office. When I arrived, the principal didn’t want to hear a word of my side of the story…shocker. She pulled out this stick from behind her desk that was as thick as my arm, and starting hitting me with it. I dealt with this prejudice for 2 years before my parents applied for asylum in the United States.

Living in the U.S. has helped me value things differently. My education has become first priority. I’ve graduated from the 15th oldest school in America (Portland High School) that’s pretty cool! The reason why I chose SMCC is because the school is right on the ocean (I love the ocean) and there is even a little lighthouse within walking distance. It is very affordable, the classes and teachers are nice, and I can earn credits that I can transfer to a university within two years. To top it all off, there is lots of support, hands on learning, and tutors are available.