Freedom from Want

Freedom from want –Liz Murray author of Breaking Night writes of her experience. Born to drug-addicted parents and after her mother’s death and her father staying at a men’s shelter, her and her sister were often homeless and on one occasion ate lip balm to satisfy their hunger. Ms. Murray daydreamed to deal with the isolation and give herself feelings of safety, belonging and hope. At age 16 she found herself alone, sleeping on frozen stairwell landings, begging for change in Manhattan and desperately searching for a high school that would enroll her after years of truancy. After all she’s been through and she says maybe because of it, a certain amount of want is healthy as it served as a catalyst for her dreams and her dreams have always been what motivated her. Ms. Murray found the alternative high school Preparatory Academy and a non-profit place called the Door which provided homeless teenagers with counseling, medical care and food which kept her going while she completed her homework in train stations and under hallway lights. Ms. Murray was fortunate to have the NY Times tell her story after spending 2 years as a homeless student earning A’s in her courses. After the article, she says dozens of people reached out to her from all across the United States. Before these people reached out to her, she didn’t know how good people could be. As she sees it, America never owed her anything more than a real and solid chance to work for her dreams. She says it’s been up to her to choose a life that measures up to those dreams. To get there the focus was a clear vision for her life which might have proved impossible if she had not lived in a country where dreams still come true. And she says that at the heart of it all was her willingness to be grateful for the things she has and not dwelling on what she doesn’t have. Ms. Murray says let that be enough and it will be all the freedom any of us need. Ms. Murray not only graduated from high school but from Harvard University.

On October 6, 2011 Good Morning America gave a summary of Steve Jobs’ commencement speech given at Stanford in 2005 he said – you have to trust in something; your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, don’t lose faith. You’ve got to find something that you love. All external expectations, all pride, all fear or embarrassment of failure falls away when you live like every day is your last. Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition; they somehow already know what you truly want to become, everything else is secondary. Steve also encouraged the graduates to stay hungry and stay foolish. He said it’s not the customer’s job to figure out what they want.

If you watched Oprah you would know that Ms. Murray’s story is not the only one of its kind; there have been several other such success stories. There are opportunities. I’ve heard many actors within the last 6 months say they were bullied or homeless and Barbara Walters did a special about regular folks becoming billionaires. Home of the brave, land of the free is still what this country stands for if you are not lazy or a freeloader and have dreams that you will strive for.