During a cozy Thanksgiving dinner in Delta, B.C, surrounded by people from diverse backgrounds, we found ourselves playing a table topics game by the fire. When it was my turn, I drew a card that asked: “What was a major historical event in your life?” I didn’t have to think for long — 9/11 came immediately to mind.

Memories overwhelmed me all at once — the heavy presence of American drones overhead, the streaks of smoke in the sky, and the uneasy tension between fear and hope that defined those days in my home country of Afghanistan.