In our second question for this blog post, we were asked to ponder our impressions, thoughts, or deeper understandings about forever homes in relation to refugees and asylum seekers. In the mentor text, “Wherever I Go”, by Mary Wagley Copp, the main character, Abia, is powerfully written as one whose anxiety about the search for a forever home is always tempered through the lens of her sense of self as a powerful queen who shows bravery and resilience in difficult situations. This idea and the way that this text was written resonated with the admiration and respect that I feel for those who seek refuge in order to make a new life. I feel that those who seek asylum do so because they are fighting for a better life for themselves and their families, and the incredible bravery that they show is so inspiring. As we read and re-read this book, my students agreed that this is one of the most moving and impactful texts that we have read so far. They commented about how terrifying it must be to leave everything that you have behind in order to survive, and how they would have been scared to go to a new home and start over. Many of the students talked about how they could not fully understand what this must be like, and how “spoiled they are” by having homes and being safe and settled.  I have no students who understood fully or related to what it might be like to be a refugee, so we had to discuss what that term meant and how powerful it is to understand the depth of need for even basic life necessities for those who have to leave everything (even family) behind in order to stay alive and build a life in safety.