This Side of the Line

This Side of the Line
The story of the Kumu
Based on a true story
…that just hasn’t happened yet.

         My name is…well, I can’t tell you what my name is. Believe me, you probably don’t want to know. But call me Kaden. I am a Kumu. What is a kumu? We are…normal people. We are normal people who fight for what we believe in. We have been called superhero before. But we aren’t really, those are fictional, and this is real.

         We don’t wear flashy costumes. We don’t fight super villains. We don’t slay dragons. The only demons we hunt are our own. We have no super powers. In fact, we aren’t super at all. We’re people who care. That’s all it takes. People who care. Our powers come from ourselves. Every horrible sight we’ve seen, as well as every child’s smile, drives us. In training, in protecting, and in life itself. We’ve done something with our lives. We’ve turned our mistakes into something we can fight for.

         Yes, this world is hard. There is so much bad in it, and so much evil. It seems hopeless sometimes. Like no matter where you look, another person is crying.

         Looking around, at school, at the mall, anywhere, it becomes more and more evident that each person has a story of pain, an area of their life they wish to hide. Sometimes it is so overpowering.

But remember the good.

         There is pure good in the world. You have to hang on to that with all you've got and never let it go. It's kind of our motto. You can't just give up. You can't let it overtake you, can't just go with the flow.

         We have learned to spread that good at all costs. And I do mean at all costs. We have nothing else to lose. So many are losing their lives from evil. We'd rather lose ours lives for good.

         Just because you feel you've become so overcome with your demons that you feel ready to die, doesn't mean you should. When you reach the point of suicide, or even the point of giving into evil and becoming it, you just have to look back and realize you'd be dying (whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or all) for evil. It sounds harsh and cruel to some survivors, and I'm sorry for that, but I think that's the gist of it.

         No matter how many wrongs I've righted, no matter how many I have slain in the name of good, I could not succeed in the slaying of my own self. For that, I will always be grateful. I owe something to the world that kept me here. I owe something. I owe myself.

         It's when you reach that point you can truly help people. If your life doesn't matter, it can be dedicated to the few haunting embers of true goodness. It is then you can truly give yourself to the causes that matter. Because then you have nothing to lose.

We mine as well do whatever we can to make this world a little more bearable for the next kid that gets to experience it.

It really is up to us. I don't mean it is up to Kumu – it is up to all of us. Spread the good or spread the evil. It's so easy to cross the line.

It's our job to keep this side of the line alive.