The whole point of picking out your lunchbox as a kid is so you can be ready to go to school and get an education, so you can go to a good university, get a degree, get a good job and be a good and productive member of society, right? It seems sensible, it sounds easy, but the journey never quite feels that way. At some point you ask your self "What am I doing with my life? What do I want to do with my life?" Things seem hard and unfair until you meet someone else who puts it all into perspective. For me, one of those people is Immaculee Ilibagize (pronounced i-mack-you-lee ill-uh-bug-eeza). I had the pleasure of hearing her speak at a conference I helped put together for a university project and got to meet her briefly. She is a tall, quiet woman, well-dressed and incredibly reserved. But when she speaks it is profound. She spent 91 days in a tiny bathroom with 6 other women during the Rwandan genocide. The space was so small that they had to take turns standing. There was barely any food. Imaculee entered at 115 pounds and left weighing only 65. But not only did she spend 3 months practically starving and smashed into a tiny space, but when she emerged her entire family had been brutally murdered. "Sometimes I feel like I'm centuries old," I remember her saying, "because all of my family is dead... no one I knew is alive." It's those kinds of statements that really make you think. I know how hungry I feel when I haven't had breakfast, let alone going 3 months having barely eaten. I know how I feel in a crammed elevator and it seems like the doors can't open fast enough. Then imagine being in that elevator for 3 months with almost no food and if the doors opened, men with machetes would be waiting to kill you. Suddenly life doesn't sound so bad. But what makes Imaculee's story so powerful isn't just the horror she survived. It's the fact that she has not only lived to tell the tale, but that she is still a loving person who found strength in spirituality. She met the man who killed members of her family and forgave him. She looks at every person she meets with more kindness and compassion than most people who've had an easy life. Now she goes around the world telling people about what happened to her and encourages them to be better people (and let me say, after listening to her speak, you wouldn't feel like a decent human being if you didn't). She's incredibly inspiring and when you think about what you want to do with your life and where you're going, it never hurts to think of the world as a better place.
She recently interviewed on 60 minutes. Click here for more.
Imaculee's Book "Left To Tell" is also available at Amazon.com.
You can always learn more about Imaculee and her charity at http://www.lefttotell.com/
Jessica D.
Make That Resume Founder
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