“Our everyday life is as it is. This is normal for us,” a second-grade student told me in Damascus, Syria.
In my work with traumatized children, I have witnessed many different versions of “normality.” Some students left their homes with their parents to create a new home elsewhere. Others have experienced their fathers leaving the country — leaving them, their mothers, and relatives behind. Living with hunger, missing school, and war have also become a part of their “normality.”