What does the grain of sand that Salan throws at the beginning of the memoir, When Stars Are Scattered, represent?

The grain of sand that Salan throws at the beginning of the memoir represents the choice of fate that Omar has in his life. Salan turns a grain of sand into a symbol to show Omar that like a grain of sand is one of many in a desert, he is one of hundreds of thousands of refugees. He uses it to convince Omar to go to school in order to decide his own fate - whether he is resettled or not.