The Necessary Journey

INTRODUCTION

Hope through Stories

The rumbling of helicopters swarming through the night, every night for almost a week, is a sound that I will never forget. On one of those nights, I was sitting at my desk grading papers, but I gave up, unable to concentrate because of the chopping and whipping sound of the copters’ rotors. Police presence had increased everywhere. Restaurants were boarded up. Curfew was 7 p.m. And all this was just piled on top of the alternative reality we’d been living through because of the pandemic. I’d spent months tracking toilet paper deliveries to stores that ran out in minutes, seeing empty aisles at the grocery stores, being physically isolated from my family and friends in an effort to remain safe. I vividly remember ...