As I listened to Donald J. Trump’s “America First” inaugural speech on NPR, I was struck by a conversation I had had with my Afghan daughter before she departed for a semester in Rome the day before the inauguration.
A junior on scholarship at a prestigious liberal arts college in New England, Sabira is doing what most juniors do, going abroad. Keenly aware of how fortunate she is, she left for JFK International Airport in a state of disbelief that this was actually happening. An economics major and Arabic minor, she does nothing but study and earn money as a Residential Advisor, and the result is that she made the Dean’s List for the fall semester.
I should clarify: she is not actually my daughter, as she has loving parents back home in Kabul. I am her legal guardian, and have been for five years, while she is studying in the U.S. Close friends were so taken with her that they are sponsoring her younger sister, Zohra, who goes to boarding school in Connecticut. Other friends in our circle are now making plans to bring her younger brother here, provided the boarding school is as generous with him as they have been with his sister. It seems likely, given the way this family impresses people. A third sister, Nahida, is in the U.S. through a nonprofit devoted to educating Afghan girls, and this past Christmas, all three sisters slept in one queen bed at my home in Connecticut. The head of Zohra’s boarding school said that she is an example of sheer determination and hard work for the other students, many of them international. She got all As the past semester, despite the language challenges. And Nahida placed for her Oregon boarding school in a national science competition.
Denne historien er fra Issue 60-utgaven av Greenwich Country Capitalist Magazine.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 60-utgaven av Greenwich Country Capitalist Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Humanity First
As I listened to Donald J. Trump’s “America First” inaugural speech on NPR, I was struck by a conversation I had had with my Afghan daughter before she departed for a semester in Rome the day before the inauguration.
Our Little Racket
In the waning light of the predinner hour, Mina Dawes sat across the table from Isabel, desperate to keep their conversation aloft. During the silences her gaze wandered out over Isabel’s pool, its surface entirely untroubled beneath the late-afternoon sun.
The Palm Beaches
IT WAS WINTER 2011; I was sitting alone in my home in Connecticut.
The Einstein Legacy Project
ALBERT Einstein was a true genius.
Statue Of Limitations
You can go in now, miss,” the receptionist directed.Emma crossed the waiting room and entered the office. The Chairman of the American Committee motioned Emma to a chair across the desk from him.
Hamptons International Film Festival's Silver Anniversary
LIGHTS! Camera! Action! It’s hard to believe the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is celebrating a quarter century of showcasing great works in film.
Megyn Kelly Settle for More
Rye’s Megyn Kelly, in the Spotlight.
Women Create Their Own Opportunities in New York's Growing Weed Industry
On a recent Thursday evening in downtown Manhattan, nearly 50 women and a few men, ranging from millennials to baby boomers, gathered in a sleek co-working space to talk about weed.
Mah Jong Memory
I remember mah jong through a haze of memory and my mother’s Benson & Hedges cigarette smoke.
The Heirs
Eleanor belonged to that class of New Yorker whose bloodlines were traced in the manner of racehorses: she was Phipps (sire) out of Deering (dam), by Livingston (sire’s dam) and Porter (dam’s dam).
