Welcome to a new world. Say goodbye to whatever life you’ve known in a culture you’re well versed in. Welcome to a new place, possibly a new country. Their religion might be different, but you best believe their language is different than yours. Their food is probably different, too. When you try to pay for your food, they don’t take your currency. Say goodbye to whatever life you’ve known.

Welcome to a new people. This new world? The people that occupy it are different from you, too. They look different, they talk different, they are different. Their eyes are different shades of blue or green while yours are an amber shade of brown. Blondes with long, thin hair that falls straight down their back look so different from your dark brown. Perhaps you cover it with a scarf, maybe you don’t. Wherever you come from, the looks here are so different. Even if your language was in a similar family, their dialects are different. And their tones? Unwelcoming. Accusatory, even. If you nodded in their general direction in greeting, they turned away from you. Customary greetings? Well, yours aren’t appropriate here. Say goodbye to normalcy.

Welcome to new hatred. Wherever you left from, there had to be a reason. Whether this reason is rooted in age-old violence or political unrest… you have your reasons. The validity of them was never a question, but why is it that the people in your new world question you? Your life was complicated before you left your home, and unfortunately that won’t change now, no. Perhaps it won’t ever, because your history is written in the dirt of a country you’re unsure will even exist someday. Someday, that might be gone and you might consider yourself part of wherever you found refuge… but will they ever consider you one of them?

Welcome to new prejudice. What is it about the word "refugee" that creates such a negative connotation? Weren’t all peoples in the United States once refugees or immigrants? Nevertheless, time hasn’t changed that newcomers don’t always receive a warm welcome with open arms. They face figurative crowds with torches and pitchforks. They’re met with an astounding layer of ice coating the faces of those who might welcome them. Welcome to a world where you are judged based on the fight for your freedom and your life.

Why is the word "refugee" so ugly? Why do we feel infected by allowing refugee populations past borders that somehow geopolitically barricade us from whatever ailed their home? We don’t have to understand another language to be able to offer food, clothing and shelter. We don’t have to pray to the same God or Gods. We don’t even have to believe in God to be able to provide sanctuary. We don’t have to give up our jobs to allow refugees to find safety, and we don’t have to integrate ourselves. We do have to find our humanity though. We do have to find in our shared struggle of being human that we are not, in all actuality, much different. We all want, and hope, and love, and breathe, and live.

Instead, let’s say welcome to acceptance. Your struggle is my struggle, let’s conquer on together. Open your arms. Open your minds. Open your hearts.

This doesn’t have to be an ugly word.