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On her first night out in Rome, a scared, non-confident Iqra, in a black shirt, dark denim pants and 5 inch heels climbed down the stairs of her apartment, which was an 8 minute walk away from the Monti Tiburtini station. Wearing a full face of makeup and her hair tied up in a bun, she attracted as much attention as could be attracted at 11:00 PM. She enjoyed the attention to the fullest. Living 20 years of her life in Pakistan, in a household where she was allowed to go out with friends thrice at max a month and be home before 9:00 PM, she decided to start her birthday this year with an adventure she had never gone on before. Iqra decided to turn 21, while roaming the roads in Rome. After an eight minute walk from her house to the bus station, she took her favorite bus numbered 111 from Monti Tiburtini to the Tiburtina station. With thrill, her heart pounded so loud that she vibrated all over. She went on this adventure to kill the fear that had gathered up in her heart for 20 years due to the imprisoned and controlled life she had lived in Pakistan. When she got out of the bus at the Tiburtina station, she decided to walk from Tiburtina to wherever she ended up. Suddenly, while walking away from the station, there was courage swelling in her, she felt fearless and indestructible. Walking our from the station onto the road, she kept going without a direction to wherever Rome and her feet conspired to take her. Just when the clock struck twelve, she screamed, "Happy Birthday to Me" on the top of her lungs feeling surreal when a sound brought her back to Earth. Someone replied with a mirthless, echoing laughter to her wish. A drunk refugee came running towards her, with broken teeth red with plaque, hair the dirtiest she had ever seen flying out in the wind. His laugh heart piercing, took all her courage with it in the wind, echoing in the dead silence of the night. Drained of all the courage and bravery, she ran like a maniac herself, mimicking the drunk refugee, back to the station. She ran, with her 5 inch block heels tick tocking on the roads, the world around her a blur. Her heart, once again, was thumping in her ears. She was scared to her wits until she reached the station. Having arrived in Rome two days earlier, she had no friends and no one to call at that hour of the night. Feeling drained but grateful, she sat down on the front of the station, waiting again for her favorite bus. She waited 45 minutes for the bus to arrive until she asked a guy, who has been standing beside her from the moment she sat down, about the bus being so late. The guy, first informing her about night buses, asked her why she was so out of her wits she arrived at the station. Telling him the story of the adventure of her birthday, she laughed with the guy at her own stupidity and embarked the bus with him after another 30 minutes, but this time, she sat in the bus fearless, talking to a person she didn't know would turn out to become the most important person in her life. On the night of her 21st birthday, Iqra found courage in her heart and her best friend for life in a country she would forever love with all her heart.