I don’t wanna be just an escape. I’d like to be your next destination. That one place you’re excited to go to. That one place that makes you feel you’re home. That one place you’ll never get tired of exploring. That very same place that can make your heart skip a beat with just a glimpse of it..

Sometimes the hardest person to love is yourself.
I’ve suffered so much self hate and resentment.
That I realized this war within me had to stop.
So I glanced at the mirror smiling at the lovely woman staring back.
And I admired her body with awe.
So I told her that she is smart , kind ,beautiful and strong.
While I vehemently chanted to every inch of her body ,as resilient and wonderful.

So now her beauty is embedded within my thoughts.
From that moment on I just knew it.
After hating her for all these years…..
I was finally loving her for the first time.

One man worked as a Turkish translator and was escorting tourists back to the airport. One woman, an airport worker, was looking forward to her wedding in 10 days. There were taxi drivers and a customs officer. And there was a Turkish couple who worked together, and died together, in the suicide attack Tuesday night at Istanbul Ataturk Airport that killed dozens of people and wounded more than 200.

As officials said on Wednesday that the death toll from the attack had risen to 41, details about the victims began trickling out. At least 23 of them were from Turkey, according to a Turkish official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the attack publicly.

The victims reflected the cosmopolitan and international character of Istanbul, whose airport is among the world’s busiest, a hub for tens of millions of passengers connecting to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and beyond each year. Among the victims were five Saudis, two Iraqis and one citizen each from China, Iran, Jordan, Tunisia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, the Turkish official said.

Hours after the attack — which has not been claimed by any group, although Turkish officials said they suspected it was the work of the Islamic State — a limited number of flights resumed, and workers continued clearing debris and replacing shattered windows at the airport.

Unlike Brussels, where a terrorist attack in March closed the airport for days, Istanbul appeared determined to get back to business as usual. Under a sunny sky on Wednesday morning, cars streamed into the airport’s international terminal, where the attack occurred, almost like on a normal weekday.

But traces of the blasts lingered: Police tape marked off the site of one of the explosions on the lower arrivals area. And workers in yellow vests pounded long support bars into the concrete sidewalk, erecting a seven-foot-high metal fence dividing the road from the airport entrance.

An elderly woman, who said she was a refugee from Afghanistan, sat on gravel in the shade, near a pile of her belongings, and watched them.

Even as the airport reopened, scenes of grief played out at a nearby hospital. A young woman, wearing a brown and pink head scarf, rocked softly back and forth as an older woman embraced her, sobbing. The young woman’s husband was among the injured, and doctors had told her to prepare for the worst.

“My God, why did you take him from me?” she said, her voice breaking.