"We ate ice cubes because it felt like eating. We split a tube of toothpaste between us for dinner."
Elizabeth Murray is an American memoirist and inspirational speaker who is notable for having been accepted by Harvard University despite being homeless in her high school years. Her life story was chronicled in Lifetime's television film Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003). Murray's memoir Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard, pub
"I learned from that time period that, even though the past is always kind of right there, you can decide to start over with a loved one," Liz tells OWN. "I lost my mom, and we did not have enough connection at the time, and I was not going to let that happen again."
"Like my mother, I was always saying, Ill fix my life one day. It became clear when I saw her die without fulfilling her dreams that my time was now or maybe never,"
"“I saw her die without fulfilling her dreams and I knew that my time was now or maybe never,"
"The problem may be huge, but your job is not to fix the entire problem. It’s to do what you can with what you have.”"
"I like to ask people to think about the courage it takes for someone experiencing homelessness to knock on the door, asking for service,” Murray continued. “It’s very hard. It’s very vulnerable."
"I was one of those people on the streets you walk away from."