Sharing presumes and creates equality.
— Clemantine Wamariya
You have this one life. If you keep being selfish and unkind, it's going to come back to you.
Like many American millennials, an 8th grade field trip first brought me into contact with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Never allow other people to classify you based on your past and current circumstances, where you were born, your experiences, your gender, or your race.
My experiences have shown me that when an opportunity bigger than you comes along and you feel unprepared and doubtful, it is important to permit those emotions and let that energy drive you and inspire you to move forward.
As a child growing up in refugee camps, life taught me that many things were impossible. My older sister, Claire, taught me otherwise when her strength and resilience made the impossible possible in the way she worked, behaved, and took control of our lives.
There are a lot of great people everywhere. And there are also a lot of not so great people.
I am not a refugee. I sought refuge for many years, but the word 'refugee' does not define me. It just limits me and puts me in a box.
Forgiveness allowed me to wash my burdened past away.
We need to examine hatred on a global perspective because hatred is everywhere, and it does not matter who you are: you can be a victim of it anywhere and anytime.
Labels and classifications of any type are not law, nor are they written in stone. It's up to us to be aware of this and confront it and break through it by doing things that shock and surprise people because they thought we could never achieve at that level.
There are millions of people, refugees, who have experienced the same conflicts and struggles I did. They have the same potential to defy the odds and achieve great things.
Growing up, many of us are taught to place limits on what we can accomplish while on earth. We tend to think of things in binary form: either as possible or, more frequently, impossible.
I want to tap into everyone's senses, to touch on our human sensibility.
It's taken a lot of years for me to learn how to share my story.
It occurred to me that memorials shouldn't be grand. If you really want to honor the memory of a tragedy, you shouldn't create areas of calm reflection. You should make people uncomfortable. Put them in the shoes of those who perpetrated and those who suffered. Then ask, would they be able to forgive in these situations?
We cannot afford to lose any more people as a result of hatred.
To the young girl who fails to see opportunities around her: Awaken the intellectual curiosity within you. Go on, search for those opportunities and chase after them! Because when you are curious and in 'search mode,' you will meet a lot of people and learn, and when you find opportunities, you will be exhilarated rather than overwhelmed.
All that I have achieved has been possible not only because of my own strength and perseverance, gained through hardship, but also through other people's support and belief in me.
I was the most tired 11-year-old in the world.
