Grim Prayers. Wiktor Miesok, Felix Charin. 2026.
- Breaking is part of becoming. Boys do not become men without something dying. An old identity must crack before a stronger one forms. If you fight the break, you stay small.
- Pain calls for meaning. I saw this in prison and in freedom. Pain plus meaning equals depth. Pain minus meaning is bitterness. If you ask, “Why did this happen to me?” you shrink. If you ask, “What is this teaching me?” you grow.
- Accept new identities without losing yourself. Own your transformation. Boys become men through rites of passage. Those who say, “I am who I am, I won’t change,” will not grow. I went from a soldier to a vor, from a vor to an entrepreneur, and from a prisoner to a free man. Identity is not a prison unless you refuse to outgrow it.
- Pride stunt your growth. Men who were strong, who grew, were not alone. They spoke about pain without drowning in it, and they allowed support. The ones who said, “I need no one,” who saw vulnerability only as weakness, who refused a helping hand—they broke even more, year by year. They either turned inward, becoming subdued and depressed, or lashed out, hurting anyone who crossed their path. Pride lies, telling you that you are stronger than you really are. Growth begins when pride cracks.
- Do not hide your scars, especially from yourself. Kintsugi does not conceal the fracture. It highlights it. Your scars are not shame. They are proof of survival and a rebirth. Face your shadows. Inside you there is anger, fear, envy, weakness. If you pretend it is not there, it controls you. Look at it. Name it. Discipline it. After all that I lived through, I realized that I did not chose what happened to me. But I choose who I would become.
