#isabel/zabel is a coincidence. they can be friends though

[medievalcat]

American Girl Historical OCs: Zabel Gevorgyan, 1992

Zabel Gevorgyan leaves Armenia for the United States with her parents and studious seventeen year old sister Siranush following the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her family already survived the devastating 1988 Spitak earthquake, and Zabel’s parents are raising her to see herself as strong and a survivor, but the uncertainty, war, and political instability in post-Soviet life leads her family to want a new beginning. In her new home of Watertown, Massachusetts, Zabel finds that the Armenian-American community she now lives in is welcoming, and she easily makes new friends at school, even if learning to read and write in English is difficult for her. The unusual 1992 Presidential election also teaches Zabel a lot of things about America she hadn’t known. Zabel initially has trouble relating to her new American friends and neighbors despite sharing a cultural background with many of them, and doesn’t know how to talk to them about her life, but gradually learns to open up to others and even finds new talents in helping her Armenian-American friends learn the Armenian language, and running on the school track team. But Zabel doesn’t know how to help her sister, who she’s always looked up to, when Siranush begins experiencing severe trauma symptoms, staying in her room all the time and refusing to go outside or talk to anyone. Zabel learns that life in America is often unpredictable, but that having to be strong does not mean having to be powerless in the face of adversity.