Reckless

A Child Soldier named Michel Chikwanine came to Missouri State's campus. He talked about his time in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was 23? 24? and has seen some of the most painful parts of this world.

When he was 8, he was abducted while playing soccer alongside his best friend. They took him to a child army encampment. Though he was too little to handle a gun on his own, he was still trained to shoot.

Within the first few weeks of living at the encampment, he was blindfolded. A man stood him up, placed a gun in his hands, and said "SHOOT". After dropping the gun twice, Michel mustered all his strength he had to hold up the gun and fired. The man behind him took the gun away and removed the blindfold; Michel had just shot his best friend.

After escaping the child army, Michel also witnessed the rapes of his mother and two sisters; he was told to watch and held at gunpoint, where he would be shot if he blinked. Michel's father was a political activist and tortured, and in the end, Michel had little choice but to leave home as a refugee.

All I have done today is wish I had slept more last night and complained about my classes. I find myself craving reckless abandonment in pursuit of the lost.