The lived experience of immigration has had profound effects on my soul and my psyche. It took several years of effort before I was able to immigrate to Canada in August 2021. Before leaving I spent two years doing military service, I studied English for a year, and applied for a visa for entry to Canada, all while dealing with the stress of Covid-19. When the time arrived, I said goodbye to all my friends and family members and left my life in Iran behind me. The problems I faced living in the Middle East and the news I deal with every day encompass my past and project into the future. As a result of censorship, discrimination, economic and political problems, and seeing the darkness that still exists, Iranian youth have suffered a terrible and endless wave of migration. Most young Iranians wish they had been born somewhere else in the world so that they would not have move from their homeland to find peace and a better life. Many, like me, chose to leave. As a first-generation immigrant, I am experiencing a range of emotions, from anger and sadness to homesickness, loneliness, and hopelessness. This has prompted me to use myself as subject matter. I chose to leave my home and so feel as though I inflicted the anger and frustration and sadness of all this on myself. Ripping myself out of archive photos responds to the emotions provoked by migration and the lost years of my past life.