Dustin B Levy

dlevy@eveningsun.com

Zijad Rucic displayed a wound on his left ankle in a Hanover coffee shop.

He was demonstrating what he was escaping from in war-torn Bosnia when he and his family left for the United States in 2001.

"We were in hell, truly hell, in Bosnia," he said. "This place is like heaven."

Zijad Rucic said he left his home country to find opportunity for his family, and his daughter, Indira, exemplifies his objective. Indira Rucic, now 20, became a published author at 18 with "Silence is My Reality," a personal narrative of her experiences in high school as a Bosnian Muslim.

She signed copies of her book at Merlin's Coffee as regulars at the Franklin Street joint participated in discussions with Indira and her parents, 10-year residents of the Hanover area.

The title is derived from Indira Rucic's quiet demeanor. She expresses herself better when putting pen to paper, she said.

"Since I'm quiet most of the time, it's kind of been like my life," she explained.

Her mother, Sadija Rucic, joked that she often tells her daughter to quiet down because she talks too much.

"Silence is My Reality," a 45-page book from Tate Publishing, documents Indira Rucic's observations as a student at New Oxford High School, where she graduated two years ago.

"The way people treated each other — I didn't like it," she said.

The book took Indira "a couple of months" to write, she said. It was an independent venture, and she contacted Tate Publishing, which specializes in discovering unknown authors, on her own.

Although she said she wasn't bullied for her religion at school, she did feel oppressed because of her meek nature and the her clothing, like the hijab she wears.

Her brother is now going through something similar with bullying over his name. When his son comes home from school, Zijad Rucic said he can instantly recognize when "something's up."

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Still, the family is thankful to be out of Bosnia.

Zijad and Sadija Rucic described living without food and electricity in Bosnia. Their town had a death toll of 10,000 people, Zijad Rucic said.

"How are we going to not appreciate what we have?" he said of life in America.

Indira Rucic described Hanover as a peaceful community and praised the friendly people and lack of violence. The Rucic family has found support through friends, family and neighbors in the area.

Zijad Rucic complimented the Hanover weather, which he described as "exactly the same as Bosnia" with the full experience of all four seasons.

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Indira Rucic is attending the Gettysburg Campus of Harrisburg Area Community College, with a focus on psychology. She hopes to work in the counseling field, and her father jokingly offered to be her first patient.

Sadija Rucic said she supports her daughter in whatever she decides to do with her life.

"She wants to help poor, innocent people," she said. "That's her choice, what she wants to do. I'm so proud of her."

Indira Rucic and her parents became Americans citizens in June 2015, and Zijad Rucic could not contain his pride when talking about that step in their lives.

"That's my country," he said. "I live here."

To purchase Indira Rucic's book:

Visit Amazon.com or TatePublishing.com and search for "Silence is My Reality"

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