Liz Murray grew up with two drug-addicted parents who she began supporting at age 10. Homeless at age 15, after the death of her mother, Liz overcame incredible odds to finish high school in just two years while living on the streets. She was subsequently awarded a full scholarship to Harvard. Liz, a Process graduate, recently shared her story with Light News editor Ellie Weiser. To learn more about Liz, please go to www.washingtonspeakers.com. To write to her directly, send email to Liz.murray@yahoo.com.
ELLIE: Liz, having seen the movie "From Homeless to Harvard" based on your life and having met you, I consider you a leader and a true visionary. Nothing in your childhood was in support of your success. Where did you find your strength?
LIZ: Thank you. The answer, in one word, is love. I was deeply loved grow ing up. While my parents were addicted to drugs, and they often chose drugs over their children, I was constantly embraced, endeared, kissed all over the face, told I was precious and that really stuck with me. I was loved not only by my parents but by my Uncle Arthur, who was a surrogate father.
ELLIE: Did you feel their love during your toughest times?
LIZ: When I was homeless, when my parents died, there were moments where I'd be out there and I'd remember the love I grew up with and the love of my friends, who'd become family to me. It felt like nothing was more important I could go without food, I could have nowhere to sleep but I knew somewhere my friends were waiting for me, and their love was very much like the love I had with my parents.
ELLIE: You lacked even the bare necessities, but you had love, and it pulled you through.
LIZ: Sometimes people grow up with a lot of 'stuff' but they don't have the knowledge that their parents are there for them no matter what. What I've found is that neglect is neglect. My parents weren't around because they were getting high. Other people's parents aren't around because they're in a career and their children come second. Neglect is neglect and if you turn that inside out, love is love, and we would be smart not to get too fixated on the circumstances.
ELLIE: As a child a neighbor gave you a set of encyclopedias that she retrieved from the trash. Did that start your love of learning?
LIZ: My neighbor Mary would go through the garbage and bring me hideous sweat ers and things that were so endearing to me. She brought me the encyclopedias, but I was already a reader because of my father, who earlier in his life had been a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at NYU. He had this great life on the outside, then crashed and burned and went to drugs. But his love of knowledge was always strong. He would take me to the library and check out stacks of books that I read, which he never returned. Because my father read them, books helped me feel connected to him, so I became a lover of books, including the encyclopedias from Mary.
ELLIE: When did your parents become addicts?
LIZ: They were addicted before my birth; my mother used drugs when she was pregnant with me. They were into the "scene" in New York City the disco, party loving, cocaine scene. My father sold my mother drugs at a party and they became a couple from
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- Дорогой, а со мной жить не трудно?
- Да разве это жизнь?
Liz Murray, whose inspirational story was made into the Lifetime Television’s Emmy-nominated original film Homeless to Harvard, will deliver the keynote address at Her Story 2006, the Junior League of Honolulu Fifth Annual Women’s Conference.
The event takes place March 30 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and features Murray, along with various speakers in the health, career, and home and office professions.
“For a group like the Junior League, I would really want people to know, especially the adults, that they’re an integral part of helping people who want to change their lives,” says Murray, who credits her former high school teacher Perry Weiner for the motivation to not give up. “They’re an integral part of helping to make that a reality, by being on the other end of that person’s decision.
“And then any youth I speak to, I just want them to know that they need to come through and have determination. People are always saying, ‘well, is it that you were helped out or that you helped yourself?’ and I come from the belief that you help yourself out and then there will be help there for you.”
After Harvard, in about 1 1/2 years, Murray plans to attend graduate school and obtain her Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She also hopes to continue her public speaking gigs and is developing a traveling seminar.
“Through the speaking I’ve been doing over the last seven years, I’ve become really passionate about helping people find solutions in their life,” says Murray, 25. “So, I’ve been developing a seminar that I can take around the country. I enjoy telling my story, but I look forward to being able to make a deeper impact on people by giving them strategies to help themselves.”
Murray, a child of drug-addicted parents, was living on the streets of New York City from age 15 to 18, eating from dumpsters and sleeping in trains and hallways.
When she was 16, her mother passed away from AIDS, and it was through that experience that she decided to live each day with a purpose.
“When my mother passed away, I felt the sense of not only mortality but that, yes, people do go their whole life not fulfilling anything that was important to them,” says Murray. “When you’re a kid, you think I have all the time in the world, and when you see somebody you love very much pass away, you start thinking, wait a minute, this woman wanted to do so many things. My mother, she cared so much to do other things. So I didn’t want to be somebody who went quietly and let go of the things that were important.”
In just two years, Murray finished high school and was subsequently awarded a full scholarship to Harvard. She was also invited to the Oprah Winfrey Show as one of the first recipients of Oprah’s Chutzpah Award.
“That was so much fun because I’ve looked up to Oprah for so many years,” recalls Murray. “She’s so compassionate and driven at the same time. Usually you see people leave behind their mission. They don’t always stay true to reaching out and helping people, and yet she somehow struck this balance of becoming a self-made person, in a sense, but also making sure that she makes her life about helping other people.
“I’ve just looked up to her for so long, and when I got to meet her it was really overwhelming. You get to stand in the presence of somebody whom you admire so much, and it makes you see all the much more how possible things are.”
Today, despite the situation she was put in as a child, Murray continues to take care of her father in New York on the weekends.
“My dad is doing very well,” she says. “He’s been clean and off of drugs for about six years now. He’s doing phenomenal, of course, he’s challenged with his health - he’s HIV positive. But the medicines they have out now are really great and his health has stabilized.
“I just don’t understand how people can get mad at somebody for
Человека, любящего кошек легко считаю другом.
Карманник наблюдает концерт известного пианиста и думает: "Какой талант! Какие пальцы!......А занимается глупостями!!!"
Из книги пророка Исайи:
„Горе тем, которые зло называют добром, и добро--злом, тьму почитают светом, и свет--тьмою, горькое почитают сладким, и сладкое--горьким! Горе тем, которые мудры в своих глазах и разумны пред самими собою! Горе тем, которые храбры пить вино и сильны приготовлять крепкий напиток,которые за подарки оправдывают виновного и правых лишают законного! За то, как огонь съедает солому, и пламя истребляет сено, так истлеет корень их, и цвет их разнесется, как прах; потому что они отвергли закон Господа Саваофа и презрели слово Святаго Израилева.”
- Значи ти би искал да вземеш интервю от мен?
- Ако имате време... – казах му аз.
Той се усмихна през и отвърна:
- Моето време се нарича вечност и е достатъчно за всичко. Какви въпроси искаш да ми зададеш?
- Не и такива, които са Ви непознати. Кое е нещото, което Ви учудва най-много у хората?
- Това, че се отегчават, докато са деца, бързат да пораснат и тогава копнеят да станат деца отново. Това че губят здравето си, за да направят пари, и после пропиляват парите се, за да възстановят здравето си. Това, че мислейки тревожно за бъдещето, те забравят настоящето и така живеят нито за настоящето, нито за бъдещето. Това че живеят сякаш никога няма да умрат и после умират сякаш никога не са живели....
Ръцете му хванаха моите и така стояхме мълчаливо.
След дълго време го попитах:
- Мога ли да Ви задам още един въпрос?
Отговори ми с усмивка.
- Като наш баща, какво бихте искали да направят Вашите деца?
- Да научат, че не могат да накарат някой да ги обича. Това, което могат да направят е да се оставят да бъдат обичани.
- Да научат, че трябват години, за да се изгради доверието, и само няколко секунди, за да се разруши.
- Да научат, че най-важното в живота, е не това, което имат, а хората, които имат.
- Да научат, че не е добре да се сравняват с другите. Винаги ще има хора, които са по-добри или по-лоши от тях.
- Да научат, че богат е не този, който има най-много, а този, който се нуждае от най-малко.
- Да научат, че трябва да контролират поведението си, в противен случай то ще контролира тях.
- Да научат, че само няколко секунди могат да отворят дълбоки рани у хората, които обичат, и че после трябват години, за да г забравят.
Если кто-нибудь пользовался услугами этой службой, поделитесь, плиззз, - кто из сотрудников надежней?
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Не тратьте свои деньги на фитнес - делайте ремонт сами! Сброс веса, длительность физической активности, нагрузка мышцев как и специфическая мускульная боль гарантированны!
…4 года: Мой папа может все. Он самый сильный и самый умный. То, что говорит истинная правда и ни чуточки не сомневаюсь в его словах.
…5 лет: Мой папа знает очень много. Нет вопроса, на который он не смог бы ответить. У него всегда хватает терпения обяснить мне все сложное так, чтоб я понял.
…6 лет: Мой папа умнее твоего. Я готов подраться, чтоб доказать это!
…8 лет: Как будто папа не совсем все знает.
…10 лет: В те древние времена, когда мой папа е был маленьким, все было совсем по-другому. То, что сейчас мне и друзьям моим нравится, никак ему не ясно и не понятно.
…12 лет: Ну, естественно папа никак в этом не разбирется. Он уже слишком старый, чтоб детство вспоминал.
…14 лет: Не обращайте внимание на моего папу. Той так старомоден!
…21 года: Кто? Он? Господи, та он один пережиток!
…25 лет: Папа как будто очень в некоторых вещей разбирается, но это вполне естественно, раз он так долго жил.
…30 лет: Наверное нам придется посоветоватся с папой. В конце концов он человек с опытом, хотя я более современный.
…35 лет: Ничего не предприму не посоветовщийся с папой.
…40 лет: Удивляюсь как ли папа справлялся? Смотря на него со стороны даже в голову не приходило, как сложна жизнь.
…50 лет: Отдал бы все чтоб папа был здесь и этот вопрос вместе обсудить.
Ø Восьмое марта переводится на 29-ое Февраля – раз в 4 года уже поносимо.
Ø Операции для увеличивания женской груди оплачиваются государством и являются обязательными.
Ø Во избежение недоразумений все женщины называются одним именем.