Communities Join Together To Promote
Behavioral Health
The Refugee Experience
By Leslie Quander Wooldridge
Nadja Memic, a recent graduate of
the University of Colorado at Boulder,
is a refugee. As a youth participant
in a summit workshop, she smiled often
but shared a story of hardship that
was more than a decade in the making.
Originally from Bosnia, Ms. Memic
was there during the 1990s, when acts
of genocide resulted in the deaths
of thousands of people. As a Muslim
in Bosnia during this time—when
Muslims were targeted—Ms.
Memic remembered that people were killed
every day during the height of the
conflict. “We weren’t
of a certain blood, we weren’t
of a certain religion, so we had to
be gone,” she said frankly.
Held in a concentration camp along
with her mother and brother at one
point, she and her family struggled
to have access to staples such
as shelter after their release. “You
were at the lowest point ever. There
were days when you didn’t
have food to eat,” Ms. Memic
recalled.
She and her family left the country
in 2001. Ms. Memic was 18 years old,
and she already understood the refugee
experience.
“I was actually living as a
refugee for 9 years in my own country,” she
said, explaining that she and her family
could not return to their home in Bosnia
during and after the conflict. “So,
being a refugee is something positive
for me. In a way, it’s a blessing
because it made me who I am.”
Although she became a thriving student,
after living in the United States for
7 years and learning English well enough
to help her parents with their needs,
her adaptation experience was difficult
at times.
When she first arrived in America,
Ms. Memic said she didn’t have
time to process her emotions—to
go through the grieving process that
emerged from being a survivor of war—because
she and her family were focused on
day-to-day needs.
But now that she’s living a “normal
life” and has fulfilled her goal
of getting an education, she can reflect
on her past, even while she moves forward.
“I had the time to allow myself
to heal. I could talk to other people,
I could relate to other people, whereas
when we come here, we don’t have
that luxury,” she explained. “I
was frozen, and now I’m kind
of melting.” 
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