I spent my childhood in an area of the world where the people I met were all very different from my parents.
The streets were paved, and the houses were painted bright colors and brightly colored lights.
And I spent a lot of time wandering around the house.
It wasn’t always nice, but it was very nice.
I would always be the first one up when the sun was up.
When I was about 18 years old, I took a trip to Germany to visit my grandparents.
I was living in a beautiful apartment in a nice house in a quiet area of Berlin.
But the neighbors were extremely hostile, and I was the only foreigner.
My grandmother, who was a nurse, started to worry about me.
She thought I might be gay.
She knew I loved my grandmother and wanted me to live with her.
I felt very, very uncomfortable and alone.
But I kept telling myself that I was not gay, that it was a misunderstanding.
So, I kept saying, I’m gay.
I kept saying to myself, “I’m not gay.
It’s not true.”
But, when I was doing my residency at the Berlin hospital, I met the most amazing, supportive people in the world.
I met people who were very accepting and who helped me to understand the world I was in.
So that was the beginning of my journey.
After that, I had many wonderful friendships in Germany and Europe, but the worst was yet to come.
The people who really hurt me were those who were racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic.
People who had no shame at all about what they were doing.
And they were the ones who did not want me to be here.
They wanted to be in the country.
I am an American, but I’m also an immigrant.
I grew up in New York City and moved to Germany with my parents when I went to college.
When I was young, the city was full of young people who wanted to become scientists.
It was very exciting and wonderful.
They had a passion for science and wanted to do their best.
When they came to Berlin, I felt like I was a member of a family, like they were really proud of me.
And that was really sad.
I felt lonely and neglected.
I had a lot in common with these people, and they were like, “You’re so talented!
You’re so smart!
You should go to Germany!”
I remember telling myself, if you go, you’ll never get anywhere.
And then, my life changed.
I got involved with the refugee movement.
My first job was with the Berlin chapter of the International Rescue Committee.
And one of the things I noticed in the refugees was that they were not happy with their life in Germany.
They were so proud of themselves.
And at the same time, they were extremely resentful of those who made them feel bad.
When the refugees came to Germany, the police were very aggressive.
They beat and threatened people who had been caught by the police.
They told them, “If you’re not going to get out, you’re going to die.”
When they came here, they didn’t understand that they would have to leave their homes, their country, their family.
They didn’t have any money, so they had to go back to where they came from.
I think the reason that they came is because the German government didn’t want them here.
The German government had to accept that these people were refugees, and that the refugee crisis was over.
And it was not only the Germans who felt that way.
I think the Germans were afraid of what the refugees would do to their country.
And they were also afraid that they could not be accepted by the German people because of their religion.
And so, the German authorities had to act.
The government had the power to send the refugees to other countries.
So in order to be accepted in Germany, they had had to be welcomed.
The refugees had to come to Germany.
So the refugees, who were fleeing a dictatorship and oppression, were not welcomed by the people who lived in Germany in the 1970s and 80s.
It didn’t matter what religion they were.
It had to do with the way they dressed.
They would dress in their underwear, or they would be in burkas, or wearing long black robes.
They could only wear a scarf and a mask, which were very conservative.
It made people feel very isolated and they felt very angry and rejected.
And if they went out in public, they felt like they would attract attention and trouble.
In my house, the furniture was all different.
I took great pride in the color of the walls.
And my room was very dark.
My bedroom was in the basement.
It looked very dark and I had an old white mattress, and my parents had a white one on the floor.
And, I don’t know, my room had a very small bed, which I had used