Hannah Kazemi graduated from Simon Fraser University in the spring of 2023, and every photo from that day tells the same story: she’s wrapped tightly in the arms of her loved ones, grinning ear to ear. In one shot her cheeks press against her sister’s; in another, she’s pulled close by her mother; in many, she’s happily sandwiched somewhere in between.
Not long after, Hannah received the 2024 Graduate Studies Award, opening the door to a master’s degree in Public Policy at Concordia University—nearly 4,700 kilometres from home.
For perspective, that’s a 45-hour drive, a thousand-hour walk, or a 5.5-hour flight, one way.
For someone who has always defined herself first as an eldest daughter and sister, the move to Montreal meant learning how to carry those roles from afar. In this piece, alumna Hannah Kazemi reflects on stepping into her twenties, the pull of home, and the joy of carving out a life of her own—captured in a memoir unlike anything we’ve ever published.
Read the full piece here.
