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Ontario, California, USA - "I got into powerlifting after I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). I wanted to lose weight and feel better about myself, especially growing up in California where everybody’s surfing and doing fitness stuff, so I hired a coach. He gave me some weights and after I lifted them with ease, he mentioned that I should consider powerlifting. I went home that same day, googled what it was and signed up for my first competition three months out. My dad loved the idea. My mom was a little hesitant but now she’s my biggest cheerleader. At my events, she’s screaming and yelling in excitement. I think more Assyrian women should get into powerlifting. A lot of women are turned off by the idea because they think it’s going to make you look manly, but it actually makes you feel good about yourself and gives you a lot of body confidence." WASHINGTON, D.C. - "I came to DC in 2008 to work as a lobbyist for an Assyrian organization. Most of the people who are working on Christian issues in the Middle East are not from that part of the world. And if non-Assyrians are driving the policy that affects Assyrians, we're in trouble. Nobody else has skin in the game. Non-Assyrians can walk away at any time and it doesn't affect the outcome of their existence. For us, it does. We can't walk away. Our existence is on the line. If we're not fighting for it, no one is going to. And no one is going to fight for us in a way that we can fight for ourselves." FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA - When I first became a mother, I found it really hard to be an Assyrian mom in Fairfax, Virginia because there weren’t too many other Assyrian moms I could connect with. So I really felt this pressure to connect my children to the Assyrian culture through books. When my kids were young, I would go to the library all of the time. One day I just saw all of these bilingual children’s books, Korean and Indian books and all of these cultures represented in bilingual books and I thought I really have to publish a children’s book in Assyrian and English. That was my inspiration and I thought, “This is what I need to do while I’m a stay-at-home mom.” Since then, I've received so much positive feedback from my books, people really appreciate that they are easy to read, easy to follow along with really colorful, bright pictures. It’s inspired an interest in connecting kids to the Assyrian alphabet at a young age. I’ve even had buyers from Louisiana and Idaho and Pennsylvania where there are small Assyrian communities. Chicago - “This store was originally opened in 1982. It went to a few people, then I took over and I converted it to a half-restaurant-half-grocery store. Phoenix - "I'm a long-term substitute teacher, which means that I fill in for a teacher who's sick or quits or can't come back. I've been there since February. Modesto - "I first went on Gishru in 2018 and again in 2019. On a tour of the Sapna Valley, we stopped in the village of Blejaneh (also known as Bet G’naneh) at the final resting place of Yousip Toma Hermiz. Yousip was executed by the Ba’ath regime in 1985 fighting for the rights of Assyrians. Chicago - “I work in the pediatric unit....we do get a lot of immunocompromised kids. It’s kind of scary to balance out your work between immunocompromised kids and kids who might have the coronavirus. We get one N95 mask until it soils or rips and we get a surgical mask every time we go to work for the whole day. I’ve felt really on edge.” . (2/2) Kafro Tahtayto, Tur Abdin – “When my husband told me we will return, I was totally against it. I didn’t want to leave my family behind. But my husband said he will go if I like it or not. So he left me for awhile to see how life changed in the village. Later, I was ready to at least think about a possible return. I also asked my children for advice. Even though I lived 33 years in Germany, they told me I should go with my husband. The problem was, I compared the life here with the old days of my youth where I had to work very hard on the fields and feed the animals. Now, it is the most beautiful place for me in the world. I wouldn’t give one day away of living in my village for one year in Germany.” (1/2) Kafro Tahtayto, Tur Abdin - “There are different reasons why I left my good life and relatives in Germany. The first reason is totally political. This is my land. MY LAND. If people want to claim a piece of homeland for themselves, they must live on this ground first. The other reason is that most of us did not leave their homeland because of jobs and money. We were afraid. We were afraid of a second Seyfo genocide that could happen to us. So about 20 years ago, I told my family that I want to return to Kafro and see how life changed here. I wanted to see if the life was equally hard as before or if it became better. My wife cried. She didn’t want me to leave. Something could happen to me. But I told her that I don’t care. If they kill me or let me live, I don’t care. So I left and lived awhile here. When I returned back to Germany, I told everyone that we can come back and live here as humans with dignity and maybe we will have a better life in the homeland than in Germany.”