Sharp Edges

Writer and climber Shara Zaia is navigating identity, belonging and mental health within the Assyrian diaspora. Zaia reflects on growing up between cultures in the American Midwest and the quiet ways assimilation reshaped her relationship to her heritage, as she embarks on a journey of reckoning and reclamation through rock climbing. On the wall, where balance, fear and trust collide, Zaia confronts the cost of erasure and begins the difficult work of returning to herself by deciding when to hold on and when to let go.