FBU-2020-06-01

Born in Srebrenica during the war. His parents fled to Srebrenica when his mother was 5-6 months pregnant with him. His parents were peasant farmers from the small village of Krivace. Town was besieged by Serbs due to its proximity to the mountain Zep which had, atop it, vital military infrastructure. His family made it to Srebrenica, but his father who was in the army went back to the front line. They were given an apartment in Srebrenica because his father was with Naser Oric’s unit. His father was wounded by a mine and returned to Srebrenica. They left Srebrenica in 1994 on a UN Convoy. His father had to protect them because Bosnian soldiers engaged in the black market were throwing women and children off busses to get their own people on. They live in Tuzla until the end of the war when they were kicked out and moved to Buhotina outside Sarajevo. They applied for asylum in 1999 and finally made it first to Sioux Falls, SD in March 2000. He finished 2nd-7th grade there, and the schools were quite unsatisfactory. They did not do much to help immigrants learn. His parents started a trucking company and they had many friends and family in St. Louis. They moved to St. Louis in 2016. Considers himself more Bosnian than America. Believes that you never really cease being a refugee, you cannot find a place where you fit in 100 percent