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KPBS Midday Edition

Author Shares Experience From Being Homeless To Attending Harvard

Liz Murray is pictured in this undated photo.
Courtesy Photo
Liz Murray is pictured in this undated photo.

When Liz Murray was a teenager, her mother died of AIDS.

Murray, who was homeless and had dropped out of school, realized that it was now or never to change her own life.

"I buried her and I kept thinking about all the dreams she had. She wanted to do things with her life. She wanted to be sober, to have a home, anything any other human being wants. And when I saw her get buried without fulfilling her life, it made me reflect on my own and I thought 'that can't happen to me. I have to learn from this,'" Murray said.

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Murray's mother contracted AIDS by sharing needles. She and Murray's father were cocaine and heroin addicts. Murray wrote about her experience in her bestselling memoir "Breaking Night."

In the memoir, Murray describes how she graduated from high school, won a scholarship and was accepted to Harvard.

Murray is the keynote speaker at the United Way of San Diego County's "Changing the Odds Community Breakfast" on Wednesday.

On Monday's Midday Edition, Murray described her journey from homelessness to Harvard.

Author Shares Experience From Being Homeless To Attending Harvard
Author To Share Experience Of Going From Homeless To Harvard GUEST:Liz Murray, motivational speaker and author, "Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard"

This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. Graduation season is about to begin . All of the college graduates have a reason to feel proud. Some people travel longer distance for that diploma. My guest Liz Murray traveled farther than most. Her memoir tells of her journey from homelessness to Harvard graduate. She will be in San Diego as a motivational speaker addressing the Senegal County United Way later this week. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. You had what could kindly be called a rough start in life. You were born in New York to parents who were drug addicts. How was it for you and your sister trying to survive? Even though that is accurate my parents were addicted and in a way was makes because we had parents who I experience to be loving as they could be but drug addiction will hamper your ability to be as loving to your children so we went without enough food and we missed a ton of school and was taught active intravenous drug use throughout our entire childhood. How did they manage to show their love? Even though my parents were getting high and everything that came with that throughout the day my mother was physically affectionate. She would tuck me in a night and even though she was legally blind she would use big print and read to me. I remember she would say to me so often I really wish I knew had to stop. I just don't know how to stop. I think I took a message away from that because the gestures of love there was a lot that we were still lacking, but I learned that people cannot give you what they don't have. I think in a sense even though it was devastating, I felt like it was this devastating thing happening to all of us not something they were doing to us and help me understand what people are struggling to go sometimes they wish they could do better and if you needed a dollar and I only have a time I cannot give you a dollar. I think I grew up taking that away and the second piece was that I was going to have to figure out things about life on my own. After your mother died you found yourself homeless as a teenager. Can you describe what a day in her life was like question what No one thinks they're going to ad-lib and up homeless. I ended up on the street because the drug addition went untreated and we don't treat it deteriorate so HIV and AIDS came into play and this is before they had access to medication. When I lost my mother, we had already lost our apartment. I was already bouncing around on the couches of friends when everything came to a head. I buried her and I was living couch to couch at my friends house having really tough nights. I would wake up during the day and try to knock on a friend store asking if I could have something to eat or take a nap. If that wasn't successful, I would shoplift some food and I might stop by my high school because I was registered but not attending and I think what characterize at time with a sense of fear and hopelessness and not knowing what was going to happen next. What turn things around for you? After I buried my mother I had 2.5 miles. It's amazing how lessons that could be helpful can come through adversity. I would not choose it the way and prescribe it for anyone else, but when I lost my mother I think a piece of that is we did have such a loving connection and what came back to me at that moment when I had to choose about school I buried her in a thought about all the dreams that she had and she wanted to do things with her life. When I saw her get buried without fulfilling her life and made me reflect on my own. I thought that could not happen to me. I have to go back to school. I went knocking on doors and by then I should've been graduating but I was beginning. I was homeless and I had one credit so it was going to take knocking on the right door. I was lucky to knock on the right door. I found a group of teachers who meant toward me and I found nonprofits in my community who their entire purpose is to serve people on the streets in need of hot meals, tutoring, counseling, dental work. With the support of those teachers and of that nonprofit I was slowly able to put my life back together. Were markedly remarkably you graduated in 2009 from Harvard. I would imagine not very many had the extreme challenges that you face. What kinds of problems to children tell you they have to overcome in their lives? I think kids I hear they don't know what their purposes and they don't know that they matter. It can make some of the most destructive choices in your life. I really would like to work with kids letting them know that what they do impacts the community and the world around them and that we need them in their good ideas and hard work and it is worth it to be here. I think that a lot of families are living in poverty and we don't like to look at that in our country. We like to think that it happened somewhere else or I really can't stress enough that people can end up in dire circumstances through no fault of their own. What is the most powerful message you think you can bring to young people who are struggling with challenges quench work I think we can all hear examples of our own lives and something I do believe that my life stands for I think that my life was transformed in the context of the community. I think my life speaks to the power of what happens when you have to take responsibility for yourself but when you do, you change a life through everyone growling to pitch in. I walk into school on the streets and there is amazing team of teachers who tutor me and if I'm hungry, I go to a nonprofit and they feed me. I'm doing my homework at night but they're feeding me so I still life and helping me with dental and finally what I managed to graduate, I was still in a dire situation when I graduated high school. Guess what else happened a newspaper picked up my story and people started coming to my high school asking where is that Liz Murray woman. They would come find me and they brought me blankets and they paid my rent and they made me care packages for college. So I think that the message that I would want to carry two people is that you can't change your life overnight. Takes choice by choice and day by day. We do the next right thing and you can carve out a new life for yourself and when you do turn around and do the same for someone else to make sure that you jump it because there is listen we are all human. The world has so many problems but the worst thing that you can do is start to tell yourself they need to fix it. They need to fix the schools they made to fix society and the streets. I like to tell people there is no they. You are it. You are the one that they been waiting for and you are the person that has to step forward in your life and your community. I have been speaking with Liz Murray. Her book is called breaking night. She will be the keynote speaker at the night away changing the odds committee breakfast this Wednesday. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.