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" I think, when you survive any intense experience, people try to moralize you; a lot of people just try to raise you high, and it's so not fair to you and to everybody else. "

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" 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. "

Clemantine Wamariya

Growing Up

Limits

Impossible

" Everything I own in my closet has a story. Stuff is not just stuff - things were given to me with love. "

Clemantine Wamariya

Love

Everything

" I want to create or be a platform for people who have been labelled as a victim. I'm not going to be their voice; that's their voice. I want to allow people to voice their life beyond labels. "

" My Chicago is beautiful and diverse. It was able to give me all parts of the world all in one. "

Clemantine Wamariya

World

Give Me

" I was the most tired 11-year-old in the world. "

" Being kind to myself helped me deal with people who thought less of me and thought they were better than me. "

Clemantine Wamariya

Who

Thought

" After my final semester at Yale in December of 2013, I made a scary choice. Instead of looking for work - feeling over-read and underweight - that for a few months I would go wherever the wind carried me. I would become a student of the world, and I would eat. "

" My copy of 'Night' is dog-eared. The pages are filled with plastic colored 'flags' that are blue, green, purple, and yellow. Vocabulary is in the margins; phrases and sentences are underlined, some with pencil, and some with pen. Many words are circled. "

" Sharing is wonderful, but giving - I give, you take - often maintains the power status quo. "

" I am thankful to those who've listened to my story over and over as well as those who've helped me share it. For me, the act of storytelling is an act of healing. "

" 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. "

" I want to listen to people's stories and find strength in them. There is so much human-caused pain and suffering in the world. I want to honor all those difficult experiences and acknowledge their aftermath. At the same time, I want to really see and love the world around me. "

" It is so important to share experiences with one another. Humans are so often in their own heads and not looking to others. But we have to realize that we are always invited to be a part of someone else's story - we are together in this. "

" Every single person on the planet has equal humanity. "

" I'm open to everything. Take me anywhere, show me everything. "

Clemantine Wamariya

Open

Show

" My day-to-day varies. I do some public speaking. I talk to school groups. "

" 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. "

" I was six years old when the conflict started in Rwanda. "

" Growing up in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, I had a wonderful life, one that I have not experienced anywhere since, even after living in nine countries. "

" I hate light... I feel like at night, it's safer. If anything happens, there's a way to hide at night. Another thing I hate about light is it reminds me about being in a refugee camp and being outside. "

Clemantine Wamariya

Night

Light

" When you're in survival mode, you numb yourself. "

" I'm not a victim - I'm a survivor of hunger, of hate, of different injustices that humans are facing today. "

" Children tell the truth. "

" Being able to connect with other humans is something I've done since I was little. "

" 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. "

" I enjoyed playing everywhere, especially my mother's garden and my neighbor's. I loved my kindergarten. We sang songs; we played everywhere and ate lunch. I had a childhood that I would wish for anyone. "

" 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. "

" In 2006, after 12 years being separated away from my family and then seven years knowing that they were dead and them thinking that we were dead, we reunited... in the most dramatic, American way possible. Live, on television. "

" You have this one life. If you keep being selfish and unkind, it's going to come back to you. "

" Sharing presumes and creates equality. "