“No matter what is happening in your life, you always offer tea.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“When you’re in survival mode, you numb yourself.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“You have this one life. If you keep being selfish and unkind, it’s going to come back to you.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“One of my fondest memories growing up in Rwanda was seeing everyone participating in community-building activities. This happened every Saturday at the end of month. People work together in cleaning streets, planting trees, and take care of each other by facilitating productive conversations and actions that are beneficial for the society.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I’m still coping with my trauma, but coping by trying to find different ways to heal it rather than hide it.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I truly hope readers learn to believe in their imaginations and their ability to shape their own lives. That’s what ‘The Girl Who Smiled Beads’ means to me.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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?”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“We are all neighbors. Be kind. Be gentle.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“If you want to learn about the history of a people, eat their food and drink their beverages.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Forgiveness allowed me to wash my burdened past away.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Sharing presumes and creates equality.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Make your education personal. When it matters to you, you will show up.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Every single person on the planet has equal humanity.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I’m not a victim – I’m a survivor of hunger, of hate, of different injustices that humans are facing today.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I want to tap into everyone’s senses, to touch on our human sensibility.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“There are a lot of great people everywhere. And there are also a lot of not so great people.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I was the most tired 11-year-old in the world.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“We cannot afford to lose any more people as a result of hatred.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Like many American millennials, an 8th grade field trip first brought me into contact with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“It’s taken a lot of years for me to learn how to share my story.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“’Night’ may be one of the most important books that people can read today. It is a story of how hate can slowly take over a society. It shows what happens when people are dehumanized.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I was six years old when the conflict started in Rwanda.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Elie Wiesel and his book ‘Night’ have changed my life, shifting the way I see and treat people and inspiring me to fight injustices any way I am able.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Always strive to be a better you for you and for other.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Set goals but be flexible.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“When you receive an education, you pass it on.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“The tradition of Umuganda is a beautiful and inspiring one. It connects people to their surrounds and creates a responsible community.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“The benefits of Umuganda are not merely economic. The day is intended to build community involvement and strengthen cohesion between persons of different background and levels. One such a benefit is that people can access authorities to articulate their needs and voice opinions on various issues.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“My formal speaking career began before a group of 10 third-graders. We drew pictures of my home in Rwanda. I told them about my mother’s huge garden and our mango tree. The lessons I taught were simple. Play nicely. Take care of plants. Take care of people.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I never thought that being a public speaker would teach me so much about life and make it so beautiful as well.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Children tell the truth.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I go around the country sharing my story. I aim to dare other people to go deep into their own stories and hope to inspire them to think about their own world and experiences.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Everything I own in my closet has a story. Stuff is not just stuff – things were given to me with love.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“The world is part of us, and we are part of the world. Even through the smallest acts, we can demonstrate that. I believe in the human spirit, in the kindness in all of us, and I am hopeful for this world.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Safety should be a birthright.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“It has taken me so many years to finally be in my bed and fall asleep for six hours.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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
“People say you can’t change the world. But you can change people.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“My day-to-day varies. I do some public speaking. I talk to school groups.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Sharing is wonderful, but giving – I give, you take – often maintains the power status quo.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“My Chicago is beautiful and diverse. It was able to give me all parts of the world all in one.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Being kind to myself helped me deal with people who thought less of me and thought they were better than me.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I’m open to everything. Take me anywhere, show me everything.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Being able to connect with other humans is something I’ve done since I was little.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I don’t think in a linear form.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“The idea of somebody suffering is really painful to every human. In our collective language, we all too often see those who are suffering as a victim to be pitied, to be feared, and even sometimes to be despised. I want to redirect that narrative.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“If we believe that a person seeking refuge is to be pitied, feared, despised, and looked down upon, we are doing ourselves a disservice.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“I want people to know that they are the masters, the queens, kings, and gods of their own story.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“Words will never be enough to quantify and qualify the many magnitudes of human-caused destruction.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“From age six to 12, I lived in seven different countries, moving from one refugee camp to another, hoping we would be wanted.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
“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.”
― Clemantine Wamariya
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