I remember when I was that kid, when I barely understood the world, before I have even leared of the reality of wars, bigotry, government oppression, propaganda.

I remember that 8 year old kid, my previous country facing massive political and economic issues (not that I understood that at the time), that’s why my parents left. I was already having trouble fitting in, learning the language was difficult, and being an introvert made that stuggle harder.

I remember my mother kinda just pushed me into doing trick or treating, I didn’t wanted to do it… too many people… but I mean, I guess I kinda was fine, free candy lol, at a time when my parents were kinda stuggling. In hindsight, it was a quite nostalgic and pleasant memory, compared to many other memories.

I remember running into classmates and um… that was so awkward for me, because I’m kinda socially awkward.

I remember the candy I hated the most was Reeses and Twizzlers. I know some of y’all would probably disagree, but that’s just me lol, everyone’s different.

But like… holy shit… imagine if this was the shit that happened back then.

I reflect on 8 year old me, and I think of the immigrant children today, and I see that reflection of my 8 year old self, I see that spirit in these kids.

I… idk how to describe this. But like I think about alt-timeline often, and I could imagine how terrified 8 year old me would be if some adults took me away, I can imagine the same fear if it happend to these kids today, literally tonight in about 12 hours or so.

I was alone once at age 5-7 (forgot the exact age) because I had a fight with my older brother and ran away, and I could’ve been kidnapped. But I could imagine a timeline if I had been. And it’s 10x worse if its people from the government, because kids used to see them as protectors, that belief being shattered at such a young age is gonna cause a lot of developmental issues. Its gonna be hard to even form friendships, I mean I didn’t even face much government oppression and I already had such issues from family troubles, imagime being also facing overt government oppression.

Its so sad.