From Homeless...to Harvard

The good thing about being sick is...having time to catch up with some good sleep, and watch some good movies...without feeling guilty that you're 'wasting time' or that you should be using your time to do something more 'productive'. 

So...I had gastric for a couple of days...and while I was munching away on crackers, I got lucky enough to come across, and watch, this amazing movie called 'Homeless to Harvard'.

Based on a true story of Liz Murray, a child to drug-addict parents in New York both of whom eventually die of HIV/AIDS, suffers homeless and at the depths of falling down in the darkest hole imaginable...yet, does not lose faith. Her strong will yet enabled her to survive the many 'insurmountable' changes she had to face; had she given up hope and lost faith that things will get better, she would have likely chosen a different path and ended up in a very different place, far away from the inspirational figure she now is. In her own words, '[...] just at change happens to me, I can cause change in my life'.

After her mother passing away, when she was only 15, she realized that it was time to make a huge commitment: high school. Having stopped attending school four years earlier, Liz was more than ready to roll up her sleeves and do her very best at gaining what she had not valued before:

'Before I had this transformation, I always had this illusion I call if-this-then-that. If I find a quiet place, then I'll study. If I get some more cash, then I'll go to school. We do that when there is no real commitment to a goal. We're saying, "I'm committed...unless.' There's a big difference between that and an absolute commitment. Absolute commitment means you'll work in a hallway.'

After earning her diploma, Liz decides to apply for a scholarship with the New York Times which, she successfully achieves. Having been stripped off all forms of comfort one could possibly imagine, Liz learned how to defeat the 'gloom' surrounding her by looking inwards and up for a better 'life', a chance that she knows she will, one day, get. She also started to understand the mechanics of two crucial concepts, namely, attachments and commitment.

If you do get the chance (hopefully not because you are sick!), I highly recommend you to watch this great and inspirational movie. This blog post seems like a movie review - and strictly speaking, it is. The aim is, however, to show us all that whatever 'dire' or 'depressive' situation we seem to be in, perhaps related to your current position (or lack thereof) at work, and in life in general, there is always a way out - which is available to us only if we have faith.

Have a nice day!

The real Liz Murray (born in 1980), subject of the film Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray story (2003)

Watch this 2-minute clip from Liz Murray discussing Homeless to Harvard and introducing her new book, Breaking Night.


Nikita Pisani at Muovo

Posted in: