Originally starting as an essay for a college class, “Til Bombs Do Us Part” became a published book regarding bombing experiences. The book is based on real experiences from UO freshman Sophia Barghouti’s journey to Beirut, Lebanon.

The story follows the narrative of a 9-year-old girl who witnesses the struggles of her family and the city during a bombing and captures the moments in vivid detail.

The narrator reunites with her family, but they soon face the chaos and terror of civil war, experiencing poverty, destruction and the fear of losing loved ones. In this experience, the young girl confronts her own privilege and the harsh realities of war.

The story emphasizes themes of resilience, empathy and strength of family.

Barghouti was raised in the U.S. with Middle Eastern heritage and said she became aware of the disconnect from her relatives in Lebanon due to the privilege that came with living in America.  Unlike her family, she had a safe place to sleep at night and never faced threats like bombings. She also acknowledged her American perspective on Middle Eastern issues. With this realization, she sought to share her experiences to promote understanding in the community.

“People can listen for so long but they can’t just have facts thrown at them,” she said. “They have to hear it from a person who has actually gone through it.”

Growing up with annual summer trips to Lebanon to visit family, she experienced rising tensions firsthand. The year after, at age 10, she learned she could no longer visit due to the escalating danger in the region.

Her family was all too familiar with the effects of war, enduring frequent power outages that necessitated a routine of lighting candles. Bomb explosions would shake the house, imitating an earthquake and sometimes continuing for hours. This stark contrast to her own life had been an eye opener for Barghouti. At nine years old, she recognized for the first time the profound inequality in the world, realizing that while she lived in safety, her relatives lived in constant fear.

“It’s important to recognize, while the U.S. has its problems, it also is a safe option,” she said. “It may not recognize everyone’s identities, but at least I have a bed to sleep on at night without worrying about bombs exploding all around me. In the story, that is their normal.”

Barghouti’s story was initially an assignment to write a detailed scene. Because the memories were ingrained in her brain already, she wrote the essay aiming for a high grade. It wasn’t until she read it aloud to her classmates that she realized its emotional impact. The room fell silent, her peers’ wide-eyed and sad expressions revealing their connection to her words.

Having never seen a reaction like this before, she quickly realized that people were willing to listen and appreciate her vulnerability. With the encouragement of her professor, she self-published her story on Amazon as an e-book to spread the theme of hope to a wider audience.

“I don’t want them to feel pity,” Barghouti said. “I’m not looking for the satisfaction of someone saying ‘I’m sorry you went through that.’ I’m looking to help others know that at the end of the tunnel, there is light. It may be a very long tunnel but there’s an end.”

She hopes her story will guide those facing similar traumatic experiences, showing them how she navigated those troubling times. For readers who can’t directly relate, she aims to foster an understanding of others’ perspectives in how they experience the world.

Barghouti said that many people from diverse backgrounds experience a multitude of feelings, and one can never know what they have been through. It’s important to listen to their stories as they can give others a better understanding of how to adapt or respond to various situations. She adds that while we may not understand at first, learning from others enables us to share that knowledge and teach others.

Writing the story has also been therapeutic for Barghouti. Although she relives the traumatic experiences, she finds that by putting pen to paper, she can control these memories, making them less painful each time she revisits them.

“In a sense, this is my therapy and people just so happen to be reading it,” she said. “I can’t control anything else but I can control what I write. This is a therapeutic way for me to stop the flashbacks because as I started writing more, they slowly went away.”

Given current conversations regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Barghouti believes that her story remains relevant and can greatly contribute to the conversations by fostering empathy.

“I want people to know that there’s hope,” she said, “even if you feel hopeless at times.”