The Long Way Home

I never know how to answer the question “where are you from?” The answer is a bit complicated.

I was born in Iran and when I was 12 years old, moved to Southern California with my mom and brother. I lived in the suburbs of Los Angeles until I was 24 when I decided I wanted to be a flight attendant and travel the world. My job as a flight attendant led me to lovely Newark, New Jersey and in a few years I realized that the life of a flight attendant was not as glamorous as I had imagined. I was living in New Jersey and working for a real estate development company when I met my Canadian-Italian husband on Match.com in 2005. He was in Vermont and I was in New Jersey and although I could not imagine myself living in Vermont at the time, I quit my job, sold my condo and took the best chance of my life.

We married in 2006 and started to settle into our life in Vermont. It took me a couple of years to get used to the idea of living here. Having lived in big cities all my life, I desperately missed the hustle and bustle that my previous city life offered and I could not get over the fact that I had moved to the only state without a Target! In the first few years, I fixed my shopping and city cravings by traveling to Boston and Montreal often. I remember one instance when I left work at 4:30, drove to Montreal and shopped for several hours and was home before 10:00 pm. But as time went on I began appreciating the beauty and quiet of Vermont. I made friends and had a social life again and was enjoying my work. Vermont slowly became home and my city cravings slowly subsided.

After a few years, we started thinking about starting a family and after some difficulty going about it the biological way, we found ourselves wondering about adoption. The process was amazingly smooth for us; so much so that when we look back, we think “wow, why didn’t we do that sooner?” It took less than eight months from our first meeting to inquire about adoption to holding our daughter and just like that, we were a family.

Our daughter is nearly 4 and she is sassy, smart and strong (mentally and physically). She is full of joy and is an incredibly happy, kind and generous child. My life has been revolving around hers for the last 3 years and 8 months and I could not be happier. Even though I could not picture myself in this domestic roll 10 years ago, I think that I wear it well.

Although I don’t think of myself as a writer, I am someone who has a lot to say. I am passionate about politics, social issues, diversity, culture and most of all my family. I am so grateful for this opportunity and the platform to talk about some of the things that are important to me.