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youth belong together.

a place for youth to share their stories and learn the stories of others.—

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understanding, compassion, justice, and peace are possible when we listen and learn from those who have different life experiences from our own.

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recent stories:

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belonginternational

This is Carsten. He is 20 years old and attends un

This is Carsten. He is 20 years old and attends university in the Seattle, Washington area. Carsten likes to spend time with his friends, calling them and playing games with them almost every day. With COVID-19, as horrible as it’s been, an upside for Carsten is that he is able to do more introverted activities with friends and he and his friends don’t have to go out as often. This makes it easier for him to recharge. Other than social activities, Carsten likes to listen to music, and is growing his own music taste. Carsten hopes to graduate this year with a degree in Chemistry and pursue a Master’s degree with the dream of participating in Teach for America or something similar; his goal is to teach chemistry to high school students. His biggest dream is to be able to provide an immediate impact and belief in his future students right from the beginning. He understands he will struggle in his first year of teaching as well as the following years, but he is very excited to learn and become a great teacher. Carsten worries about not being accepted into his ideal Master’s program, realizing that he hates teaching, or that he simply will not enjoy life. He is terrified of being hurt by the people he loves or feeling like he is not good enough. He is worried for his friends and family who have COVID-19 or who have immunocompromised systems. As optimistic as Carsten wants to be, he finds that he feels worried about a lot of things.
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#world #global #peace #worldpeace #belong #belonginternational #globalpeace #culture #peacekeeper #globalization #international
#justice #nojusticenopeace #compassion #understanding #reconciliation #blackvoicesheard #equality #intercultural #multiethnic #equity #refugees #westandwithrefugees #movement

This is Jena. She is 21 and is from Northern Calif

This is Jena. She is 21 and is from Northern California but attends college in the Portland, Oregon area. Jena is a very artistic person and loves to spend her time creating, whether that be drawing, sewing, or playing the piano and guitar (along with a few other instruments). She also likes to spend her time doing anything that is active - dancing, roller skating, longboarding - and enjoys these activities even more if it involves other people. She is a huge extrovert, even though she can be super shy and anxious. She values spending time with groups of people and fostering community within these groups. She also spends a lot of her time learning, watching documentaries, or reading articles and books. Jena dreams of helping people and wants to more than anything in this world. She can’t stand watching people around the world and in her own country suffer knowing there is something she can do about it. Right now, she is looking at graduating with her bachelor’s degree this year and then pursuing her master’s degree with the hope of getting a job with some sort of macro-level social work practice involving advocacy, policy reform, and racial reconciliation. She never wants to stop learning - no matter what she ends up doing. Jena’s worries tend to change depending on which day you ask her. A lot of the time, she worries that she is not enough, yet also too much, with her career, her friends, her parents, and everything she does in life. Sometimes, life feels so crushing; she wants to just be herself. She is worried that she doesn't have healthy enough boundaries to pursue the career she wants and is worried that she will never be enough to actually make a difference. A lot of the time, Jena worries she is just faking it through life and has gotten too good at simply surviving that she doesn’t know how to just be. She is worried that she will never find peace.
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#world #global #peace #worldpeace #belong #belonginternational #globalpeace #culture #peacekeeper #globalization #international
#justice #nojusticenopeace #compassion #understanding #reconciliation #blackvoicesheard #equality #intercultural #multiethnic #equity

This is Rachel. She is 20 years old and attends co

This is Rachel. She is 20 years old and attends college in the Portland, Oregon area. She likes to spend her time finding new places to explore whether it be hiking or road tripping somewhere new. She also loves to spend time with her friends doing movie nights, coffee dates, or study parties. Rachel hopes and dreams to find a way to help people in the future. Though she is studying marketing, she would rather help somebody instead of using persuasion and hopes that she stays that way moving forward. Rachel worries about the future of the COVID-19 crisis and this upcoming school year. She relies heavily on her planner so having to take a step back and know that many plans she has are likely to change has been difficult for her to grasp. However, she likes to remember that this can all be temporary if she does her best to protect herself and others.
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#world #global #peace #worldpeace #belong #belonginternational #globalpeace #culture #peacekeeper #globalization #international
#justice #nojusticenopeace #compassion #understanding #reconciliation #blackvoicesheard #equality #intercultural #multiethnic #equity #refugees #westandwithrefugees #movement

This is Eddie. He is 17 years old and attends high

This is Eddie. He is 17 years old and attends high school in the Seattle, Washington area. He spends most of his time on the internet and social media. He also likes to listen to music and play the piano. When he is not doing that, he can be found doing his homework or talking to his friends from school. Eddie’s biggest dream is to travel the world. He is interested in meeting all different kinds of people to see what it is like to live in other places around the globe with the goal of growing in his understanding of the world. He also hopes to find a career that interests him and that he continues to live a happy life. Eddie’s biggest concern is about the future. He worries about what he wants to do when he grows up and whether or not he will have time to do all of the things he wants to do. He is also concerned about politics and whether or not the United States is moving in the right direction.
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#global #world #belong #peace #peacemaker #peacekeeper #photography #photographer #culture #immigration #immigrant #worldpeace #graduation #love #globalpeace #youth #joy #friends #canon #nikon #camera #refugee #wewelcomerefugees #friendship #makeadifference

This is Lu. He is 20 years old and attends univers

This is Lu. He is 20 years old and attends university in the Portland, Oregon area. He likes to spend his time with his family because he is a very family-oriented person and loves to be around his family members. He believes that family is another name for home and is a place where he finds happiness. Lu dreams of being successful in life and having a job that pays well. He hopes to be able to provide for himself and to take care of others along the way. He also hopes to own multiple properties so he can have vacation homes in different states since that is something that interests him. Lu is worried about not reaching his God-given potential and is concerned that he will fall short of his own goals and aspirations.
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#world #global #peace #worldpeace #belong #belonginternational #globalpeace #culture #peacekeeper #globalization #international
#justice #nojusticenopeace #compassion #understanding #reconciliation #blackvoicesheard #equality #intercultural #multiethnic #equity #refugees #westandwithrefugees #movement

This is Lilia. She is 20 years old and is majoring

This is Lilia. She is 20 years old and is majoring in business at a university in the Portland, Oregon area. She likes to spend her time with friends, eating out at different restaurants and going on adventures. She also enjoys cooking, specifically focusing on desserts and exploring different coffee shops around Portland. She is also passionate about skincare and kickboxing. Lilia dreams of becoming a victims’ advocate right after college where she hopes to teach self defense to victims of domestic abuse. Later in life, she hopes to open her own coffee shop as well as find someone with whom to grow old. She also dreams of helping people realize their own dreams and hopes to make the people around her happier. Lilia is concerned about the pandemic and the effect it will have on normal life in the future. She is also worried about the success of her future coffee shop and the steps to take to run and maintain a success business.
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#world #global #peace #worldpeace #belong #belonginternational #globalpeace #culture #peacekeeper #globalization #international
#justice #nojusticenopeace #compassion #understanding #reconciliation #wewelcomerefugees #refugees #refugeeswelcome #westandwithrefugees

This is Bontu. She is 17 years old and attends hig

This is Bontu. She is 17 years old and attends high school in the Seattle, Washington area. Being more introverted, Bontu dislikes socializing and instead likes to spend her time daydreaming about and planning for her future. She generally likes to dream about her future career and other things she wants to do in her life. Her more immediate dream is to attend university out of state, ideally in the Midwest and to do a study abroad program while at university. Eventually, Bontu dreams of living abroad, ideally in the Middle East, specifically Dubai since Dubai is more similar to the United States compared to other Middle Eastern cities. Bontu also dreams of helping people and desires to go into the medical field and work abroad. She hopes to make donating to nonprofits a large part of her life as well. Bontu worries about the state of the world, whether it be an asteroid on its way to earth or the ongoing conflicts in areas of the world, such as the Black Lives Matter movement or the Arab-Iraeli conflict in Israel/Palestine. Since there is so much injustice in the world, she worries that it will be difficult to solve and pacify these issues since it is hard to focus on just 1 issue. In her own life, she worries that she will not be able to move abroad to help people and that she will give up on the world. She is also worried about not accomplishing what she hopes and dreams of doing in her life.
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#world #global #peace #worldpeace #belong #belonginternational #globalpeace #culture #peacekeeper #globalization #international
#justice #nojusticenopeace #compassion #understanding #reconciliation

This is Zinash, known to her friends as Zinny. Zin

This is Zinash, known to her friends as Zinny. Zinny is from southern California and is studying graphic design at a university in the Portland, Oregon area. She likes to spend as much time as she can with friends, and values quality time with people. When she is on her own, she’s usually doing homework. She also likes to listen to music, watch TV, and sometimes doodle a little. Her hopes and dreams begin with graduating from college with good grades, and then finding a job she enjoys where she works with a team. She tends to be more of an introvert, but finds she works best around others and would like her future workspace to foster good community. She worries about graduating from college and finding a job where she is happy. Another fear is that she won’t have the people she loves close to her.

This is Amber. She is working toward her degree in

This is Amber. She is working toward her degree in engineering in the Portland, Oregon area. She is originally from the Los Angeles, California area. Amber likes to spend her time watching Harry Potter movies, taking pictures, and hiking and camping now that she lives in the Pacific Northwest! Amber worries about doing well in school because she wants to meet the goals she has set for herself. She also wrestles with making sure she is going in the right direction in getting her degree and her college career. Amber desires for her family to do well, as she is very close to them. Ultimately, Amber hopes to impact others in a positive way through engineering and considers going abroad with a focus on helping others through her degree. Amber also hopes to be able to live in different places in the United States, such as Washington or Alaska, and hopes to one day be able to adopt or foster kids.

This is Aino. She lives in Namibia and is graduati

This is Aino. She lives in Namibia and is graduating from University of Namibia in April with a degree in education! She likes to spend her time reading books that have deeper meanings. She also enjoys talking with her parents about their lives before she was born. Aino worries about the current state of the world and the unemployment problem in Namibia, as well as losing her faith in God. However, she often keeps things in perspective, exclaiming, “Death is not yet here; why worry about that!?” She hopes to grow stronger in faith in the future and dreams of traveling the world, particularly Denmark and Hawaii. Ultimately, Aino hopes for a world in which one is free to express themselves.

This is Aviya. She is 17 and lives in and attends

This is Aviya. She is 17 and lives in and attends high school in Jerusalem. She spends her time with friends, reading, going to scouts, and volunteering for the MDA, Israel’s emergency disaster program where teens may volunteer. She dreams of going to school and participating in a paramedic program to become a nurse in the army. She also hopes to travel the world someday. Aviya worries that the refugees in her country will be deported back to their homelands and is concerned about the possibility of terror attacks and war.

This is Maria. She is 19 years old and lives in De

This is Maria. She is 19 years old and lives in Denmark. She likes to spend her time around people whom she cares about and particularly loves to experience things spontaneously. She also enjoys traveling and relaxing. She dreams of traveling as much as possible and wants to see as much of the world as time allows her. Maria hopes to explore new places, both locally and abroad, rural areas and bigger cities.

This is Maikol. He is 18 years old and is a senior

This is Maikol. He is 18 years old and is a senior at a high school in the Seattle area. When he was younger, he immigrated to the United States from Honduras with his mother and siblings. He likes to spend his time playing and watching soccer, participating in worship at church including singing, and especially likes public speaking. Concern about the current administration’s immigration policies is his primary worry. He is attending college in the fall with the hope to become a future lawyer or teacher, and dreams of earning enough money to provide his mom and siblings with a house.

This is Chris. He is 18 years old and is a senior

This is Chris. He is 18 years old and is a senior at a high school near Tacoma, Washington. He plans on attending college in the area in the fall. He spends his time playing with his nephew, and participating in sports, such as baseball and golf, while working toward a career through engaging in his schoolwork. He worries about picking the right direction for his life and is concerned about choosing a path that he will later regret. He dreams of one day learning how to fly airplanes and hopes to live a long, happy life full of adventures and joy.

This is Dylan. He is 19 years old and is taking a

This is Dylan. He is 19 years old and is taking a year off of school to work before he attends college in the fall in the Seattle area. He loves to spend time with his friends, listen to music, and connect with others via social media. He worries about the future and is concerned with the state of the environment. As a young person, he sees the maintaining and improving of the environment’s quality as integral, greatly because he and his peers will inherit it. He hopes to one day find love, and dreams of a career in which he is passionate while having opportunities to travel the world and experience other cultures.

This is Aimée. She is 19 and attends university i

This is Aimée. She is 19 and attends university in the Seattle area. She loves spending time with her friends, specifically going on hikes in the Pacific Northwest. Aimée also loves to play soccer; she played throughout high school. She worries about other refugees not knowing what to do once they arrive in the United States and she desires to do something about it. Knowing that she herself comes from a country that had its own problems, Aimée is passionate about helping refugees, specifically the youth, as they are students coming to America with their own hopes and dreams. She dreams of helping refugees in the hope that they will in turn impact their own communities in a positive way.

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