My story is all too common in Iran.  One day, while living in Iran as a young girl going to high school, government authorities picked up my personal diary and decided to reprimand me for its content. Their punishment was to prevent me from attending university.  

It was a harsh rebuke for a dreamer like me.  I was ultimately thrown in prison for several months as an additional reprimand.  I was given this treatment for personal writings I had done while dreaming of a better life.  

By God's grace, I was released and soon found my way to Texas.  After several years of studies, hard work and learning a new way of life, I became a medical physicist treating cancer patients.  

I cannot imagine what my life would have been like to have not been privileged with the opportunity of living as a citizen in a country with great individual rights protections and political freedoms.