This year, China has been named “the best country in the world”, “the nicest country in the world”, and “the most humble country in the world”. China was also voted one of the worst countries in the world for the LGBTQ community. In a recent survey by Nestpick, China’s capital city Beijing ranked last in most welcoming cities around the world for homosexuality.This is a result of the country’s emphasis on gender roles, and use of “conversion therapy”.  China’s government also categorized homosexuality as a mental illness up until the late 2000s.

Like most chinese children, 17 year old Zoe Zheng grew up in a conservative household. She lived in Hangzhou, a city on the eastern coast of China. She had never met any same-sex couples, so when she came to America to study, Zoe was shocked.

When she was 15, Zoe moved alone to Tacoma, Washington, a city outside Seattle. She attended an all girls boarding school, and on her first day, she noticed that her English teacher and her “dorm parent” had the same last name. Since they were both women, Zoe assumed they must be sisters although they looked very different from one another. When she learned they were actually married, Zoe was shocked. She had never seen a “real gay couple”. Zoe told her parents, who were also incredibly taken aback by this. Zoe explained she did not know how to interact with the couple, because she saw them as different from herself.

As the school year went on, Zoe got to know her teachers. She spoke with them more and more, and realized they are the same as anyone else. “ the two teachers did not have any difference from straight people,” said Zoe.

Zoe Zheng was raised in a country barely tolerant of homosexuality, and yet she learned to love and accept everyone regardless of their sexual orientation. She now fully supports gay marriage.

“They are just as same as us. I think everyone has their right to do whatever they like. People in the world should give them more support and love for them to actually be themselves,”said Zoe.

This February, the world’s influential youth gathered at the United Nations (UN)  headquarters in New York City with a panel of experts to discuss the refugee crisis, sustainable development, and climate change. These delegates were a selected few college or graduate students, and among this select few was a boy. He wore a tight, tan, knee length dress and stood to talk. As he spoke his shoulders lay back and he held his head high. This is Nam Nguyen of New Mexico. He was the only high school student invited to the assembly. He knew exactly who he was and he was proud. This is pride.

Nam Nguyen attends Saint Pius X High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Although being a gay student at a catholic school isn’t easy, when he came out to his peers about his sexuality during freshman year, Nguyen was accepted fully by his teachers and friends. Still, Nguyen has not told his family. “They don’t support me and celebrate my accomplishments with me, and they will not see my sexuality as a good thing,” he said.

Nguyen’s accomplishments would be impressive even for a graduate student, but as a 17 year old, it’s stellar. He works as a delegate with the UN, interns for Wall Street and The Canadian Center For the Responsibility Project, and is the New Mexico DECA vice president of community service. Not to mention, Nguyen has already received job offers from Google, Microsoft, and Apple for his work developing countries in Africa.

Nam Nguyen is an open gay man in the United States, and he is succeeding. “It’s so hard for some of us in the community to even accept ourselves. I would want the world to know that we’re just people learning to live and be proud of who we are,”  said Nguyen. When asked why he was at the UN assembly, he said “I was there representing myself.”

Nam Nguyen is an inspiration to the entire LGBT community, and those who have felt like they can’t be who they are and live a happy, successful life. He is proof that they can.

As the curtains closed, and the roaring of the crowd began to fade, myself and the students of the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association bustled into the front 8 rows of the Gerald Schoenfeld Broadway Theatre, faced by the inspiring cast and crew of Come from Away. They asked where we were from. Everywhere, we said. We were the chinese, and the Korean, the New Mexicans, and the texans. Oh! Said producer Sue Frost. You come from away.

Come From Away, directed by Christopher Ashley, tells the formerly untold story of 38 foreign planes that landed in the town of Gander, Newfoundland after the New York terrorist attacks on September, 11, 2001. The 7000 people making an emergency landing doubled the population of the Canadian town almost overnight.

Newfoundlanders donated necessities such as blankets, clothes and food. Soon the visitors were being completely integrated into society. The townspeople opened their homes,showers, and businesses and the visitors suddenly weren't just a group of nameless people, they were family.

Somehow, since the bombing of the twin towers, the United States has closed its doors to people searching desperately for safe home and place to start over. Muslims all around the world are being feared and generalized, simply because of one's heinous crime against humanity. The Muslim religion is not al-Qaeda. Osama Bin Laden does not represent the Muslim people.

The town of Newfoundland shared their lives, and yet we are cowering in the innermost thoughts of our paranoia. But we are better than this. We are a country built on accepting, and freedom, and equality, and we are better than this. We cannot let this change who we are.

“The idea of just simple human kindness and understanding who somebody else is and getting to know who they are and getting out of the way of being afraid of somebody can ultimately help us move forward in our lives,” said Producer Sue Frost.

The production brings light to a day of darkness, and as we all mourn for what was lost on September 11, the finale also leaves us filled with the joy of what we found.

As the audience stood clapping, I found myself watching two middle eastern women. They both had wide eyes, and shoulder length straight brown hair. The older woman's mouth lay slightly open, and she stared straight ahead with her wide eyes. She stood frozen, and the other was sobbing, nodding her head as she clapped quickly. The way she clapped reminded me of the way a parent claps teary eyed at their child’s first dance recital. She was the last one standing, and for a minute I wasn’t sure she would sit down again.

Come From Away is more than a touching story, it is an important example. There is love in each other. We must not let ourselves be damaged, because together we must stand.

“I hope you're thinking about how you get through each day, and how you respond and interact with other people,” said producer Sue Frost during the press conference.

This is so difficult.

I sit on my couch, fingers tracing the keys of my laptop. Twenty minutes pass. The screen remains wordless.

There are no words.

I can’t think of any words.

My heart throbs. My heart cries for all the victims of the horrific Parkland shooting. We spend more time at school than we spend at home. Our peers.... We laugh, and we roll our eyes, and we fight. We hate each other. But god we love each other. We are family. Never again will I take anyone for granted. My faith is in myself and my fellow students. United States government, I’ve not only lost my faith in you, but every ounce of respect. Our representatives seem to have this “That’s just the way it is” mindset...as if it’s just something that happens. Last night I received a text from my 15 year old friend sending me the link to a bulletproof backpack slip. I’m seventeen years old. I can’t even vote yet. I’m seventeen years old and having to decide between protecting my life with a $200 bulletproof lining or saving for college. This. is. Not. O.K. My thirteen year old sister goes to La Cueva. She came home crying today, because she saw a video of a student being hauled out of Albuquerque High School because he had guns. Tonight Rio Rancho High School received a threat. I’m not sure what to do. My body shakes.

I want to study, and eat ice cream, and watch The Office, and pretend this isn’t the world we live in, but it is. And I can’t think of anything to do about it.