Razan al Sheera was an ordinary boy. He was fourteen years old when his village was invaded by terrorists groups and organizations. Like many other families, the al Sheera family fled from their village.

Razan lay his head against the concrete wall of a distant village that he did not know the name of. He sat slumped down by his family. His parents held his little sister Seble. Everyone was tired after a day full of running. He closed his eyes, trying to remember a life before he and his family began to run. Run away from sorrow, death, fear, and terror. All the flooded into his mind were the things that he wished to forget- the mercenaries with masks that made them look like demons, the destruction and fire that didn’t come to a stop, and the pale faces of the dead. He feared death and those who dealt it to his friends and neighbors.

It was an ordinary day at school. Sure, there were some rumors of some “bad people” in the land; but was hard to even comprehend such a predicament. But there was still an uneasy, nervous tension in the classroom. Razan remembered the gunshots that became the catalyst to a nightmare. He ran to Seble, to pull her from harm’s way and they left. The whole village fled from men in dark masks shooting bullets and throwing grenades.
Village to village Razan and his family ran. He remembered the smell of gunfire and smoke that burnt his eyes and lungs. Every refugee’s face he saw shone with an uncontrollable fear. Many times they came across piles of dead people. He didn’t know what haunted him more: the pale faces beckoning him to come lie with them or the demons that were hunting him.

Razan opened his eyes in response to a voice yelling over hundreds of refugees and his family, “Loading in Boat 34!!” Razan’s dad sat up and gestured the family to come. It was time to leave the country. Razan walked with many others toward Boat 34 on the seashore. The boat was big enough to fit twenty people. He looked out into the vast ocean. The black, night sky reflected upon it and made it hard to see the vanishing point of the sea. All the passengers were given a lifejacket, Razan’s breath was cut short when a man put a lifejacket on Razan. Razan fought the urge to jump on contact with this man he did not know.

Razan thought back to when his family and refugees had entered a desolate village. Suddenly there were bone-chilling screams amongst the people, followed by the sound of bullets piercing the air. The demons had ambushed them. In the chaos, he was searching for his dad and mom when one of the demons grabbed him by his shirt harshly. Razan jumped and screamed and kicked. The demon brought out a knife and raised it above Razan. Suddenly, an explosive went off near them. Dust and pieces of a house exploded all around. The demon, Razan, and many others were pushed back by the force. Before the demon could get back to Razan, Razan bolted.

The man at the docks looked into Razan’s eyes with a sorrow that he had seen so much in the past year, as he fastened the lifejacket on Razan.
“It will be alright.” He said with a smile. All Razan did was nod and look into the man’s eyes. But there was something in those eyes that Razan didn’t expect to find here and now: it was a twinkle of courage.
“Why are you staying?” stuttered Razan.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m just here to help you and your family with lifejackets.” He said with a smirk. But Razan still didn’t understand.
“Why don’t you run?”
“Hmm…” thought the man. With a hand on Razan’s shoulder he said, “I don’t run because… I can’t run away from chances to give to others what I already have. I’ve lived a good life and I want to make sure others get to live one too. I like to think that one day people like you will live better lives because of my small act of courage. Even if all I do is put life jackets on people and help load them into boats.”
With a pat on the back, the man led Razan into the boat next to his family. As the boat left the seashore, Razan could only keep his eyes on the man who began to vanish in the dark night. This man was staying behind to help other refugees escape. The man had forgotten himself and only cared for others.

Two years later, Razan and his family had began to live comfortably in a new country and a new life. It wasn’t until others there began to ask for help to assist them bring refugees from Razan’s country, that Razan knew what to do with this new life. Since then, the thing that Razan couldn’t stop thinking about was not the dead, nor the killers; but it was the twinkle of courage in that man’s eye. Razan was still so fascinated that the man had so much courage to risk his life for people he didn’t even know. So he went to help bring refugees across the waters, because he wanted to share the same thing to others that that man shared to him a lifetime ago.