From Afghanistan to Reno, Building a New Life and Missing Home
Willie Brazil features Hasib Azizi who feels fortunate to be in the Biggest Little City but also wants to help family and relatives still in war-torn Afghanistan.
25 year-old Hasib Jan Azizi moved to Reno, Nevada, only four months ago after spending the majority of his life in Afghanistan. Now a college student studying IT cybersecurity at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC), Hasib has begun his own journey toward success — but to Hasib, living in the United States and embarking on that journey didn’t always seem like an achievable reality.
Hasib was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the capital of a country that has seen an intense amount of war, terrorism, poverty, and other forms of extreme turmoil, for most of his life.
“(In Afghanistan) we don’t have a lot of opportunities,” says Hasib. “I’ve always wanted to go out and study because I am a person that has goals and ambition. I want to build something for myself and do good things, and that isn’t possible there.”
As for Hasib’s relatives and friends who remain back home, their future, he says, remains uncertain. They are still trying to survive in Afghanistan, though he remains optimistic about their future and hopes to one day be able to help them find their way out to somewhere that is safe.
“(When I was there) we slept on dirty floors with no blankets or pillows. There were even days that we didn’t eat,” says Hasib. “I can’t go back to Afghanistan — ever — but maybe I could find a way to free them or evacuate them here or somewhere else…They are living in a very bad situation … I hope that one day I can change that.”
Luckily for Hasib, he and his sister were able to find a way to Reno through her husband and his family. Thanks to them, Hasib now has a job working for their supply company, where he is able to support himself financially while also being able to meet new people and focus on his studies, as well as his other future goals.
“When I first came here I knew nothing and was very confused,” he remembers. “Now I am learning lots of new things and I am also meeting new people…it’s very good for me and everyday is having an impact on me that is encouraging me to work hard and focus on my studies. In ten years, once I get my degree, I see myself somewhere at the top. I have a mindset that if I work hard and concentrate I can find myself in a good place.”
Though Hasib is very thankful for this newfound opportunity in the United States, he confessed to me that Reno was not the type of place he envisioned to get a new start and build a life.
“At first I didn’t want to come to Reno,” he admits. “I was thinking that it was a small city and that if I wanted to build a career for myself here I couldn’t do that. But, my sister insisted and since I’ve been here I have met new people, seen the environment, and used the facilities. I have learned to love it here and I don’t want to leave.”
While Hasib has been able to slowly settle in during the short four months that he has been in Reno, he misses his family back home and hopes that people can try and understand the struggle that the people of Afghanistan, his family and friends, face on a daily basis.
“The people of Afghanistan are tired of these wars,” he says of what has been a seesaw of foreign occupations, corrupt governments and Taliban rule. “They want education without discrimination, a life without guns and bombs, and a life without having to mourn for their parents, children, brothers and sisters, or whoever it may be that are losing their lives in these wars. The women want rights and the students that have worked day and night for their dreams want to be able to have that back. They want peace.”
