High school is alright sometimes I guess, however the suppression of Kurdish culture by the contemporary Turkish government is not. When George Orwell was a young man, he spent three days on the roof of the Polimara Cinema in Barcelona, withstanding an unrelenting fascist assault to aid the republican cause. Orwell’s devotion to his ideology brought him to risk his life in a foreign land, an undeniable noble endeavor. This type of advocacy has only become rare in the post internet age. Political activism has been reduced to a performance, a tool to further one’s engagement online.

 This is a fact which, above all else, has influenced my decision-making regarding my near future. My plan post high school is to join my Kurdish brothers in their holy conflict in the levant. I am in talks with the YPG (People’s Protection Unit) to fly to Syria and help establish a homeland for the unrepresented. The contemporary Kurdish struggle is an event I have followed thoroughly. From Erdoğan’s all too frequent unjust drone strikes to the recent disposition of Bashar Al Assad, the Kurds have never been in a more precarious situation. Due to this, I feel it is my moral obligation as a fellow libertarian socialist to take up arms against tyranny.

Conclusively, I am nothing but excited to see what the world will bring for me. Following my deployment to Syria, I am considering attending the University of Oregon for a degree in political science, a field which I feel encapsulates my interests. No matter where I end up, fighting for a more just and equitable world for all people will surely always be at the forefront of my mind.