Although I grew up in suburban Los Angeles, I’ve always had a confused outlook on “home” and what that meant to me. Both my parents lived in downtown Sarajevo until my mother was wounded by a grenade in 1994 during the Bosnian War, which forced them to flee to the Los Angeles area for treatment. So although I was raised in Los Angeles, I’ve always searched for more understanding of Bosnian culture and people, a community that isn’t very prevalent in Los Angeles.

For the most part my only interactions with Bosnia are times I’ve visited to see my grandparents and cousins, and even from my limited time there many years after it ended, I could see the impact this war had on the community not only physically but culturally as well.