From Survival to Storytelling

People ask me why I fight for the underrepresented, or how I find the strength.

One of my responses is: I carry the fire others lit for me when I was invisible, and I learned to see myself in the ones the world still overlooks. This Journey Isn't Mine Alone.

Sorting through old keynote files as I prepare for the upcoming week, I paused at a truth that still staggers me:

I've been given a voice on more stages in the last decade than my younger self could ever fathom.

Hundreds of rooms — some holding 50,000 souls — have trusted me with their time.

Me — once stateless, homeless, carrying nothing but questions and a fraying hope that belonging might someday feel possible. ?

And here's what humbles me: Opportunities like these aren't just earned — they're borrowed.

Every talk, every silent nod from the crowd, every whispered How did you survive? is a reminder that my voice today is stitched together by hands that fed me when I had nothing, strangers who sheltered my dignity, and communities that refused to let me disappear. ?

Resilience isn't a speech I wrote, it's a language I learned from those who lifted me up.

To every soul who shared their light when mine flickered, every organizer who saw a speaker where others saw a statistic, and every listener who finds fragments of their story in mine: Thank You!?

This canvas I've painted? It was never mine ( although I do hold the copyrights to it ??). It's a mosaic of all who turned You Can’t! into We Will!?

How have others seen you when you couldn't see yourself? ?? ?

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#FromSurvivalToStorytelling #GratitudeInEveryStep #Community #Overcome #farisalami