“When I was 8 years old, my parents paid a smuggler to take me across the Himalayas, a weekslong walk over the mountains from Tibet to India. It was a trek that tens of thousands of other Tibetans have taken since the Dalai Lama fled a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. My parents must have had their reasons to send me here; they must have had the best of intentions. But 18 years later, I still don't know why they did it. They are not political people. They are small farmers who raise barley and a few yak in a rural area not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. I have not seen them since I left...”. – Tsering Topgyal via The Associated Press. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

A competitor reacts as she emerges from the water during the Tough Guy event in Perton, central England, January 26, 2014. The annual Tough Guy race – “the toughest race in the world” – at Perton in Staffordshire. Tough Guy claims to be the world’s most demanding one-day survival ordeal. First staged in 1987, the Tough Guy Challenge has been widely described as one of the hardest races of it’s type with up to one-third of the starters failing to finish in a typical year. (Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters)

People watch the light installation “Onion Skin” by artist Oliver Ratsi performed during the Vilnius 700th anniversary celebration, in Vilnius, Lithuania, 25 January 2023. (Photo by Valda And Kalniņa/EPA/EFE)

A visitor watches the exhibit “Enchanted: Forest of Light” at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, California U.S., December 9, 2016. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

A child plays beside an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, the day after it was immersed in the Yamuna river for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Delhi, India September 6, 2017. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A woman is led aside as her partner is detained by Ukrainian security forces for being aggressive at an army checkpoint in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, on May 11, 2014. Residents’ attitudes appear to have hardened considerably with the deaths of dozens of pro-Russian activists in the city of Odessa this month and with reports that troops fired at a crowd in Mariupol last week. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

In this photo taken with a long exposure, a person walks a dog past Christmas lights in a park, Sunday, December 15, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (Photo by USA Today)

In this September 10, 2016 picture, a girl takes pictures of a fellow contestant while warming up backstage before competing in the Romania Miss Pole Dance Contest, ahead of the finals of the Pole Sport&Fitness World Championship 2016 in Bucharest, Romania. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)