Battered

My feet might as well be one whole blister because of some crazy flip-flops I've had for nearly a year now that hurt me every time I wear them. I've given up on them. I hate giving up on anything. I permanently took them off just after I arrived at my poetry class last night and we decided to have it outside because it was really nice. The class was only an hour and a half instead of its usual three because we had a speaker come, Elie Wiesel. He is a survivor of the holocaust as well as a Nobel peace prize winner (1986) for his work in human rights. He was amazing. I wish I could share his whole lecture...instead I'm going to tell you how I cut the back of my knee climbing over two rows of seats in the end, how I was wearing all white, and how I didn't even know I was bleeding or that I was hurt at all until I reached back and my hand came up with blood all over it. So, my feet sting and I keep having to pull my pants away from my knee wound.

Elie Wiesel was in the last concentration camp to be liberated. He talked about what he felt when he first saw the American uniform and what it made him feel and that those men (the first truly free men to step into their camp), as soon as it sunk in, they cried like babies at the sight of what had been done to 'those people.' The soldiers reaction gave the survivors hope, and Elie said that they tried to console them but didn't know how because of the language barrier. When he first came to America it was still the law to segregate races. He didn't understand that, and he said he was never ashamed of being a Jew, but when he saw that he was ashamed of being white. He spoke of the passing of the civil rights movement and then there was a moment where he said,

"I am touched by whatever America is..."
He went into the freedoms and liberties that we have and how he appreciates them, how he is thankful for it.

I really wanted to write this entry to discuss how I will soon be 20, lets see, in approximately twelve days. I feel funny about it, it's not the, I'm getting old thing, it's the, I've lived for approximately 1/4 of my life. Or maybe it's I'd feel awkward without teen attached to the end. It feels like I've been 19 for a really long time. I've come to be content with it.

I am touched to be a part of humanity.

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