ISHMAEL BEAH!

Ishmael Beah came to speak at Ball State and the turnout was a lot more than
I expected, I had to sit at the very top balcony. Everyone who I talked to seemed pretty excited about it though. When he walked out it kind of surprised me, I thought he would look different, although there were posters everywhere I pictured him differently. He had a very good personality, he was making jokes about everything and his experience. I didn't really expect him to be joking around but he was very lighthearted. It just made it that more enjoyable. He talked for about an hour and toward the end he said something that I thought was very deep and is something that should be told to people, he said "when you are asking for forgiveness you are not asking to give back what was taken, you are asking for a new chapter." This quote is something that is very intriguing to me and it is something that holds meaning in my life. When they opened up the floor for questions I expected questions like what was the hardest part and how did you recover from all that and do you have nightmares about what happened? Most of these were answered and when a girl asked for him to rap I got rather excited but he ended up not rapping. It was a very interesting to see him in real life and it was something that was very anticipated all over campus, and he didn't disappoint.