Nabeel was born in Detroit, Michigan. The second out of three sons, Nabeel was always living in his older brother’s shadow. His parents--both born and raised in Sri Lanka--were part of an unhappy, arranged marriage. For the first two years of his life, Nabeel lived in Sri Lanka with his grandmother and aunts. He feels as if this is one reason he never felt a strong connection with his biological parents. Almost three years old, Nabeel came back to America to live with his parents in New Jersey. Since he was six years old, Nabeel has had to deal with an abusive mother and a passive father. Verbal, mental, and physical abuses were a daily occurrence for him growing up. Although he tried running away, Nabeel was always legally forced to live with his mother. Now, 19 years old, Nabeel goes to college in New York. He has no contact with his mother and little to no contact with his father. A boy who has always had to struggle with figuring out how to survive, Nabeel now faces the difficulty of figuring out who he is.