Selma and Sanida were only told what their mother and father felt they could be safely told. It wasn't until many months later that Selma learned of the events that caused her family to leave Doboj.
"One day my mother was walking to the bus stop to come home and she passed a woman whom she knew well, in fact, my mother had saved this women's child shortly after the child was born with some heroic efforts, but the woman ignored her." When the woman was about to walk by Selma's mother again without speaking, Almira spoke up. The other woman motioned for Almira to step into a building.

The other woman told Almira, "I can not be seen talking to you because you and your family are on the 'Death List' and anyone seen talking with you will also be killed."

A few days later Almira told Selma and Sanida that she needed to go to Belgrade to have some medical tests done and while she was there with Mensur the girls would be staying with Almira's parents in the city of Maglaj. Selma and Sanida did not know at the time that they were on the 'Death List' and they did not know that Almira had concocted an elaborate hoax with some friendly Serbian doctors at her hospital. Mensur had also arranged with some friends at the police station to receive the necessary travel papers, forged, of course. Mensur was a prime candidate for the Serbian Army as he was in his early forties. "I know now that he was one that the Serbs would have used as a human shield at some point, by forcing him to join their army," said Selmac.

On May 30th a visit to Mensur's parents' house a short distance away was intended to inform them of the trip to Belgrade for Almira's medical condition. Even Mensur's parents were not told the real purpose of the trip.

Out came the backpacks and off the Kikics set for Maglaj. Leaving their Doboj on May 31st, Selma ran into her best friend Bilja, who was 11. "When I hugged Bilja I told her I would be back, because that's what my parents wanted me to believe," said Selma. "I never looked back at the apartment or Bilja because I just thought I would be away for a week or so. I could hear bombs and grenades on the outskirts of the city, but I was not too concerned as I was going to my grandparents' house."

About 10 miles of the 15-mile trip would involve a bus ride; walking would cover the final five miles. Every three or so miles on the bus ride the bus was stopped at Serbian checkpoints. Armed soldiers entered the bus and read everyone's papers and then the bus would be off again. Selma was stunned at how much of a military presence there was in Doboj. Everywhere she looked she saw armed soldiers, trucks with soldiers and tanks and
trucks pulling cannons.

Almira and Mensur left everything they owned behind them in Doboj. They had each other, their two girls and the clothes on their backs and only a little money so as not to raise concerns about their intentions. Selma would later recall that when she knew they would never return to Doboj she could just picture the Serbian soldiers' looting their apartment as she had seen many nights from their apartment windows.
"When we walked into nana's house, nana was just overcome with tears and I remember telling her, 'It's okay, we're all here together and we are safe; but I did not really know that what I was saying was so true."
Now that the Kikics were deeper in Bosnian territory there would be no more Serbian checkpoints so they boarded a train for Zavidovici where they stayed two days with Almira's youngest sister, Ajtena. Ajtena had a daughter Nadina who was Selma's age. "I remember going outside with Nadina and I was struck by how quiet and peaceful everything was and we had a lot of fun that day."

Soon the Kikics headed further south towards the Adriatic Sea stopping in Zenica to stay with my Almira's best friend, Selma, whom Selma was named after. Shortly thereafter the Kikics continued to head south with Almira and Mensur telling the girls that they were going to take a vacation on the Adriatic now. From Split the Kikics took a ferryboat to the island of Korcula.

It was here in late August that Selma learned that she would not be going back to Doboj. When Selma asked her mother when they would be going home to get ready for school she was told that that was out of the question. "My mother told me that it was not safe to go back to Doboj and that we would be staying on Korcula for a while. I cried for the rest of the day and the next day she explained why we could not go home."

My father and Sanida and I fished and my mom was the only doctor on the island - we stayed for a year.' People on Korcula will tell you that everything you catch in the sea is good for you - along with fish Selma and her family also ate octopus.

Mensur Kikic was a recreational tennis player, who loved the sport immensely. He built the first tennis court in the town of Doboj. Six-year-old Selma watched as Mensur built the red clay court with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Selma was seven when the court was finished. She was hooked on tennis the minute she picked up a racket. "I played tennis every day that the weather allowed until we left Doboj in May of 1992," Selma remembers. "I would watch the professional women's matches on TV and Monica Seles was my favorite. I just loved playing tennis."

Korcula was the first place Selma had a chance to pick up a racket since leaving Doboj and she became energized and excited again. She played with her dad.

Somehow Mensur learned that the Bosnia Tennis Federation was holding tryouts at their Olympic Training Center in Umag for the upcoming 1996 Summer Games and Selma was invited to attend. Umag was a 12-hour boat ride from Korcula, but Selma went with her schoolbooks and returned to Korcula occasionally to take her exams. "Many of the other young players at the training center had no family and no school to return to so lived at the training center all of the time," said Selma. Selma at least got to go to Korcula to see her family once in a while.

On one of the trips back to Korcula Selma was informed that her family was going to sign up with the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) of the United States which was interviewing Bosnian refugees who might be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. There was no future on Korcula as even the school ended with eighth grade.
Selma's parents were invited to one INS interview and then a request for a second interview came, which included the girls. Selma and Sanida were met by the INS personnel, but their parents would not allow them in the interview session as they did not want the girls to know at this time that Almira had been strip searched and Mensur had been beaten back in Doboj.

Finally word came that the Kikics and 10 other Bosnian families were approved to immigrate to the U.S. Selma was convinced her life-long dream to go to Disneyland could not be far away.
The Kikics took a bus to Vienna, Austria and boarded a plane for New York City on their way to Dallas. Almira and Mensur had seen the TV show "Dallas" in their days in Doboj so they were a little unsure as to what they were getting into.

In August of 1993 the Kikics arrived in New York's JFK airport with only Selma being able to speak any English well, if "Hi, my name is Selma, what's yours?" and "Hi and bye" and "hot and cold" are really speaking English.

On the trip to Dallas, Selma was absolutely freezing on the plane so she put on her winter parka. She was till shivering when a nicely dressed American woman said to her in the baggage claim area, "Honey, where are you from? You're not going to need that jacket tonight in Dallas." Selma at first thought the woman wanted her jacket, but that was not about to happen because she was still ice cold.

When the man from the Catholic Charities Organization herded the Kikics out of the airport to a waiting car, Selma was stunned by the wave of heat that greeted her when the doors opened. "I could not believe how hot it was," said Selma. "It was night time and it was hotter than an oven."

The Catholic Charities representative took the Kikics to their modest apartment in a not so desirable part of the city. The Kikics found two mattresses on the floor and some food in the refrigerator when they entered. They were so tired it just did not matter that the apartment was not furnished.

The next morning the they were taken to a Tom Thumb grocery store to shop. "When I went inside and saw how big the store was I though this must be the only grocery store in Dallas, because it was just so big," said Selma. "I think I touched everything in the store in the two hours we were there - that was a huge culture shock for me. I was just mesmerized."

School had already started in Dallas and by day three Selma and Sanida were in school at TJ Rusk, an inner city public school that was very poor and very run down. Selma and Sanida made up half of the white students in the school, as most were either African Americans, Mexicans or Vietnamese. "I was not very popular as I was only there to learn and not to wear the right clothes and the right makeup," said Selma. "I was different and I was not well-received by the students. The teachers on the other hand just loved how interested I was in learning.

"I was able to excel in school because my mother would sit with me to do my homework and every word we did not know she looked up in a dictionary - she would not let one word go by that we did not know."

Someone at the Catholic Charities organization found out that I liked to play tennis so I was driven over to the University Club to meet Craig Bell the head pro who ran a juniors program. "When Mr. Bell saw me play he offered me a scholarship to play in his program."

Mensur Kikic was placed in a program to help him learn to speak English. He never thought that he would go back to being an environmental engineer in the U.S., but he wanted to be ready for whatever opportunities came along. His first job in America was in a factory gluing things together. He later worked for a grocery store, at the University Club and eventually moved on to being a clerk at the Embassy Suites in Dallas.

Almira saw what happened to Mensur and vowed not to leave the apartment until she learned to speak English well.
When Craig Bell opened his arms to Selma, he also opened a lot of doors for the Kikic family in Dallas. As word spread of Selma and her family's tragedies and needs, Dallas took them in. Almira was hired as a nurse for Dr. Amanullah Kahn, an oncologist, and the chance for Selma to attend Dallas' most prestigious girls' preparatory school - Hockaday - came along as well.

An interview and a battery of tests were required to enroll Selma in Hockaday as a ninth grader. By the time Selma got to Hockaday, the Kikics had moved to north Dallas and even had a car. Things were really looking up for Selma and her family.

Hockaday was a long way from the inner city situation at TJ Rusk and Selma blossomed as both a student and a tennis player. Under Craig Bell's tutelage she quickly climbed the junior tennis rankings in Dallas and in no time was in the top twenty in the state.

Hockaday's tennis program is renowned in Texas and in Selma's years the Killer Daisies (no joke) won three Southern Preparatory Conference titles. Selma's first coach at Hockaday was Jill Berg. Berg had been at Hockaday for 11 years and Selma's first would be her last. Selma loved playing for Berg and knew she would miss her.
Berg's one-year replacement was not as well received, so Selma looked forward to her junior year and a new coach.

Selma's coach her junior year was Becky Mallory a 1995 graduate of Williams. Mallory was a four-year letter winner in both tennis and basketball for the Ephs. In Mallory's senior year she teamed with the Ephs' current women's head tennis and squash coach, Julie Greenwood '96, to win the NCAA Doubles title and lead the Ephs to a second place finish behind UC San Diego.

"Miss Mallory was a lot like Miss Berg, my first-year coach at Hockaday and I loved going to her practices and playing for her," said Kikic. Kikic played number-one doubles every year at Hockaday and either number two or three singles.

Kikic's performance on the tennis court and in the classroom did not go unnoticed. She and her family were soon involved in a totally American phenomenon - recruiting.

"Becky was fairly involved in Selma's college search because her parents knew very little about the American system," said Greenwood. "The Kikics were a little reluctant to have Selma go far away, but Becky encouraged Selma to take a look at Williams because she thought it would be a good place for her."

By the time Selma got around to visiting Williams she had received a lot of heavy recruiting from Division I schools in the south with Tulane, Vanderbilt, SMU and Baylor all talking scholarships. In the end it came down to a full scholarship to Baylor or paying to go to Williams.

Miss Mallory finally convinced Selma to at least send Williams a common application and make a visit. Because of her love and respect of Miss Mallory and Miss Mallory's great love of Williams, Selma decided she just had to see for herself.

"Julie met me at the Albany Airport and talked to me about Williams the whole way," said Selma. "I was listening but I was also leaning forward in my seat to look out at the mountains and the countryside and I was overwhelmed by a feeling or being home - home in Bosnia. When I met the team and attended some classes I knew that I wanted to go to Williams even if it was along ways form Dallas and my family."

"My host was Alison Swain, who was so nice and friendly and I had a lot of fun with Tyler Lewis who was really funny - I just fell in love with Williams right away," said Selma. As soon as Selma got home she told her parents that she wanted to go to Williams. But then as the days passed and the great distance was discussed again and again and her friends started to ask, "How can you turn down a full scholarship?", Selma began to have
second thoughts.

"It was weird that all of my friends were saying go here and go there and none of them said go to Williams, mostly because they had never heard of it," said Selma. "On the other hand all of the teachers and administrators at Hockaday and the people I knew at the University Club were saying, "You just can not turn down a Williams education - it's a
great school."

In the end Selma's parents left the decision up to her. That did not make the decision any easier. Selma tossed and turned in her sleep for about a week - Baylor, Williams, Baylor, Williams. One day Selma was walking in the hall and Miss Mallory asked her if she had made up her mind yet because the day to inform the colleges was near. When Selma told her that she really wanted to go to Williams Mallory grabbed her hand and said, "Let's go." "Next thing I knew we were on a phone in the hallway and she was calling Coach Greenwood," said Selma. "Julie wasn't in but Miss Mallory told me to leave her a message so I yelled, THIS IS SELMA KIKIC - I AM COMING TO WILLIAMS!!"

The same Selma Kikic who loved tennis in Bosnia now loves tennis at Williams where she currently plays number three singles and number one doubles - do you see a pattern here? A game her father played recreationally came in handy when her family really needed a boost in Dallas and helped open the doors of Williams College.

In her almost two years of tennis at Williams Kikic has helped the Ephs finish second in the nation and recapture the New England Division III title. Kikic's personal record in singles at Williams is 43-11 and she is currently ranked 30th in the nation. In doubles, playing with classmate Jasmine Bradley she has posted a record of 40-14 and the duo is ranked fourth nationally.

"Selma is, bar none, the best competitor I have seen at this level," said Greenwood. Coach Greenwood knows of what she speaks as many consider her to be the fiercest female competitor to wear the Williams purple. "She is a natural athlete who thrives on competition and has that championship combination of intensity, talent, confidence, and fight that as a coach you want every player to have. She gets herself up and pumped for every match and she brings her teammates (as well as any fans who are watching) along with her. When she leaves the court, win or lose, she has poured her heart into every point; she is both a joy and an inspiration to watch play."

Kikic also letters in varsity squash for the Ephs and she had never played the game until she arrived at Williams. This past winter Kikic had moved up to number two singles for the Ephs. Ironically, Julie Greenwood had never played squash until arriving at Williams and she lettered for four years.

"Selma finds a way to befriend everyone, no matter how much or little she has in common with them, and makes sure that they feel a part of the team," said Greenwood.

Along with lettering in tennis (fall and spring) and squash (in the winter) Kikic also holds down two work-study jobs to help defray her college costs.

You would be wasting your time if you found yourself on the opposite side of the net from Selma Kikic and you tried to intimidate her - she has been through too much at too young an age to let an opponent and a yellow ball unnerve her. Besides, the backpack she carried out of Doboj that May morning is with her at Williams to remind her of the cousin who gave it to her and how he died fighting for his country.

You can be sure that Selma Kikic will battle you all of the way - this kid is a fighter who is not afraid. She remembers where she came from and she knows where she is going.