Homeless to Harvard

Something I have always believed and preach is that we all have a choice to what we want to be and who we become. Personally, I think though that some people are able to come to this “point of decision” very early in life and some quite late and some never do.

I watched a movie that touched the core of my heart and soul yesterday titled “Homeless to Harvard” and it brought home this very truth. The question I pondered though was "how possible is it to make this decision early enough before it is too late?" How come some people are focused from birth and others float and others get to be kicked and pushed towards making something meaningful out of their lives and the ones that never do blame God, society, parents sometimes even siblings for taking the entire love that their parents had for all. I have seen and heard so many ridiculous excuses and reasons why people ended up being a problem to society and disgrace to God who sent them here but that is a topic for another.

We certainly do have a choice of what we become and what we make of of our lives. We are responsible to ourselves and for whatever decisions we make. It is often disheartening to hear people say “I had no choice”…there is always a choice open to us. Without getting religious about this, because I was going to quote the bible that says there are always two doors open to us…let me skip that now…we do have a choice. We make and have made some poor choices in life (I have at least) but we have also opportunity if we have life to make a “U” turn and do the right thing.

Sometimes people say “too much water has passed under the bridge’ so what? You are still not drowning under that bridge are you? If you can discern that too much water has passed under the bridge, then you can make some adjustments. In this movie, this girl “turned herself homeless” although she could say “I had no choice” but from my point of view there was really no difference between her home and the streets that she chose. Her mother and her father are both under drugs and are HIV positive…her mother in addition was legally blind and was dying …how homeless can one become? She loved both parents and wished that they made better choices but I never heard a word or a tone of condemnation of judgment... a big lesson for me.

The turning point of the movie and her life was when she like the prodigal son of the bible decided it was time to make a change and determined that no matter what she will make the desired changed. She started knocking on “closed doors” and insisting that those doors be opened to her. She also realized that she has wasted her time and her life and was determined to pay the ‘debt”. Now that is one thing that is tough. Some of us even when we have decided to make the change will like to wish the consequences of our mistakes and poor decisions away. It is usually the bitter pill that we find so difficult to manage. She took 10 courses per term (killing herslef like the teacher said)…finished 4 years high school program in two years because she wasted her years on the street (all still homeless)…and in her words “Now I am going to college and Wall Street Journal is paying”…she actually got the most coveted scholarship and went to Harvard.

What is stopping you from becoming who and what you dream to be??