You know from the title that Liz Murray went from homeless to Harvard. As you read her memoir, Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and my Journey from Homeless to Harvard, you can't help but wonder how she managed to accomplish that. Her parents were mainline cocaine users, unemployed and spending their government issued checks within days they were cashed. This story is not nice. Liz's descriptions are graphic and smelly. She watched them as a toddler shooting up cocaine in their kitchen. As a preschooler, she kept watch through the night for her dad to return home with his $5.00 bag of drugs. She and her older sister went hungry often and Liz stopped attending school because of the humiliation she endured from other students, after all, she did not bath, sleep, eat, have clean clothes, or any idea about what was a 'normal' life.
She left her mother's home at the age of 15 when her mother was diagnosed with AIDS. She was homeless at that very young age. She shoplifted food, slept hidden in friend's closets, and managed to elude the truant officers and child protective service social workers seeking to place her in an institutional home. At the age of 17 she realized that it was up to her to take charge of her life - no one was going to pay her rent but her. She found an alternative high school with teachers who lovingly supported her efforts without knowing her homeless state. She completed 4 years of high school in 2 years. Yes, she did enter Harvard, earning the prestigious New York Times scholarship, and graduated in 2009.
In January, 2011 it was announced that Ms. Murray's memoir won the YALSA Alex Award given to 10 books each year that were written for adults but with a strong appeal to young adults. You can read more about Liz Murray at Manifest Living - her program aimed at helping adults transform their lives.
My favorite quote from Liz Murray: "No one truly knows what is possible until they go and do it."
Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm
No comments:
Post a Comment