Mari Firkatian
Mari doesn't deny she has generational trauma. She accepts the fact and looking at her family tree, even after three or four generations down the line the trauma continues to be passed down.
"Genetically inherited trauma? We got it. We know we have it. There's no question. It's just a matter of how do you handle it? Where is it in your life, and how do you move forward? Cause you can't also live in bitterness and hate and you can't hate an entire nation. It's not realistic and it's just not a good idea. Not to mention it's not productive."
Although Mari knows she has been passed along the generational trauma, she focuses on the next step. Mari wants to move forward and continue passing along the information not to cause more generational trauma but to educate. When Mari was younger, the genocide was never talked about in her house. She had learned about the genocide stories when her grandmother would talk to other Armenian ladies about their experience in the genocide. Mari came to the understanding that her parents' generation either "didn't want to or didn't take the time to listen" to Armenian Genocide survivors in their family. Although the generation that avoided listening to stories, it did not mean they didn't know but it could have been a way to protect themselves further from the trauma.