From the Street to the Ivy League

© 2003 Boaz Rauchwerger

At the age of 15 she found herself homeless. When no one believed in her, she found the strength to believe in herself. By the age of 19, she was attending an Ivy League school. Three years later she helped create a Lifetime Television movie about her life.

I’d like to introduce Liz Murray. Just when you may think that your challenges are a little too much, you may want to think about Liz.

As she was growing up in New York City, her parents were drug addicts who seemed to be more concerned about their next score than they were in proving regular meals for their children.

Liz attended school on an irregular basis. Yet she showed promise by getting very good grades on some tests. When the teacher questioned her performance, she explained that a neighbor found an encyclopaedia in a trash can. Liz had been reading those books.

The family lived in a filthy environment with very little money. Add to that the fact that Liz’s mother was a legally blind schizophrenic, who had AIDS, didn’t help. Her father, although quite bright, also had AIDS. Her mother died when Liz was 15 and thus she ended up living on the streets alone. Meals were whatever she could find in dumpsters. Subway cars became places to sleep.

It took a lot of street smarts for her to survive. She not only survived, she thrived. Throughout life we all get dealt certain cards we may not like. There are only two choices – we either play them or we fold them. Liz Murray, uneducated but naturally bright, decided to call on her courage and strength to play the cards she was dealt.

According to her, “I always knew there was something inside me worth exploring.” In the next two years, while homeless, she managed to graduate from high school and eventually won a New York Times scholarship to Harvard University.

When her mother died, Liz realized that she had a choice. She could give in to her circumstances or she could take action. She decided to push herself and to make her life good.

What Liz did is a great testament to what we are all capable of doing. At the age of 16 she only had an 8th grade education. Eventhough she was homeless, she decided to make something of herself. Begging for change on the street, she would study her schoolwork in the hallways of old apartment buildings, on the subway, anywhere.

There’s a wonderful scene in the Lifetime movie, as Liz starts back to school, when she gets a paper back from her history teacher. The grade is an A-. Since she had not been in school regularly for quite a while, the teacher was pleased. Liz was not. She says, “If my words count, I want them to be right.” She wanted to know how she could have gotten an A.

In an effort to complete four years of high school in two years, she took 10 classes much of the time. She took extra courses before school, after school, in the evenings and on Saturdays. One teacher, noticing the heavy class schedule, said jokingly, “You’re going to kill yourself.” Liz replied, “No. Now I’m going to live.”

At one point, the top ten students in her high school were awarded an all-expense-paid trip to Boston to visit Harvard University. She was not only on that list, she was at the top of the list. That trip planted the seed in her mind that maybe she could go to college. One problem – no money.

Then she noticed an announcement by the New York Times about an essay contest for high school students. The topic was “how you have overcome any challenges or obstacles.” The prize was a college scholarship, $12,000 a year for four years.

In the movie she states, “I want to stand beside people on the sidewalk and not be so far beneath them. I want to go to Harvard and become very developed, read all the best books.” In a thought of great determination, she says, “I have to do it. I have no choice.”

In introducing Liz at the ceremony for the New York Times scholarship recipients, the Times representative said, “She earned a 95 average and finished at the top of her class of 150. She did it while completing four years of high school in two. She did it while homeless, her mother dead, her father a drug addict living in shelters.”

If you need a little inspiration to pursue your dreams, perhaps the story of Liz Murray has helped you do so no matter what obstacles lie ahead.

A Daily Affirmation of Inspiration

I pursue my dreams no matter what obstacles lie ahead.