Homeless to Harvard：The Liz Murray Story

(风雨哈佛路)

2013级成规2班 郭屹

(Play《不停梦想》)

Hi, guys, welcome to Popcorn Time! This is your old friend Frank. How times flies! Spring is saying goodbye, and here comes Graduating Season. For Freshmen, you are getting down to your new college life; for sophomores, you are engaged with your majors; for juniors, you may be busy preparing for your undergraduate-entrance exam; and for Senior students, you are burying yourselves in hunting jobs, or taking TOEFL, IELTS or GMAT in hope of going broad for further study. Actually, everyone is under great pressure and faced with various difficulties. Have you found the way out? How to deal with difficulties？

You may say diligence overcomes difficulties. However, what if the world you live in doesn’t give you a chance to be diligent？What if all the trusted people around you have lost their faith in life, and in you? Do you still believe there is a chance to survive? The movie，Homeless to Harvard，will give you a perfect answer.

Liz Murray was born unfortunate—her mother was alcoholic and legally blind; both her parents were drug addicts. She has not enough food to eat, no clean clothes to wear and no school to go to. At the age of 8, she began her begging life. When she was 10, her mother got AIDS. By 15, her mother died of AIDS and her father went to a shelter, leaving her living on the streets ,eating out of dumpsters and sleeping at friends’ home or subway trains .

However, she eventually has an access to the world's most famous university, Harvard! How does she manage it?

(Play Perfect)

The answer lies in her great strengthen ,independence, perseverance ,confidence, together with her hardworking spirit , inclusive love to her parents .

Now, Frank would like to invite you to have a look at Liz’s world.

What contributes the most to Liz’s success? In my opinion, it is her strong DESIRE! Under such a bad circumstance, Liz has no choice except studying as hard as she can. She wants to change her current living condition, thus she can further change her future life. Because of this simple reason, Liz spends almost all her time in studying, even on the way to the school.

Her Mom’s passing away is a great turning point in her life. She knows that one must try her best to do well as long as she is alive. Some people live just to survive, but she knows she survives to live, to live a bright and meaningful life! She wants to change the condition and she knows working hard can make it come true, so she does, studying day and night . What does Liz have? Almost nothing! But she had her dream! She wanted to change her life! She wanted to reach her goal!

With her intelligence and diligence , after so many pains and efforts, Liz finished her senior high school’s lessons in only two years! she was admitted to Harvard and finally gets the scholarship provided by New York Times . From homeless Born-loser to Harvard doctoral student, Liz creates a miracle!

（Play 《红日》）

Is there anything else contributes to Liz’s success? The answer is definitely YES! So, what’s it? It is LOVE! It’s love that has stopped the girl from falling. It’s love that makes this little girl believe that there are many things in the world worth pursuing. Although her parents never brings her anything good,, she still loves them deeply. That is also the most moving movie clips that I would remember. I still remember the lines:” I love my mother so much. I mean, she was a drug addict, she was an alcoholic, she was legally blind, and she was a schizophrenic. But I never forgot that she loved me, even if she died, all the time all the time...”

When her mother returned home from drug-addict center, Liz was happy and excited to see her mother; when she learned that her mother got AIDS, she didn’t desert her .On the contrary, she begged her mother to stay with her . She‘d like to take care of her. Because to Liz, only a house with mum could be called home . She loved her mother so deeply no matter what her mother is, or what her mother will be . At her mother ‘s funerals, she slept on the coffin ,recalling those happy days her mother had ever brought to her . Liz gave inclusive love to her parents rather than complained about the sad life her parents brought to her ,rather than hated them for not having gave her a happy and normal childhood.

This really touched me . How about you, guys? Love, the most brightly shining word, is another sun that lights up everyone’s heart.

When faced with all kinds of difficulties, Liz showed us great strength. Instead of complaint, fear and surrender, Liz just accepted it courageously and pulled all her energy to make a change . When asked about her experiences, she still felt that she was lucky. When all securities were driven away from her, when she had nothing to hold on to, when there’s no going back, the girl looked forward bravely, worked as hard as possibly by herself to pull herself out of the condition she was born in.

Hi, guys, when deeply impressed by her tremendous strength , shouldn’t we learn to be strong? Yes! Nothing can defeat us!

Sometimes , as is the case with Liz , we have no choice but to stick to moving towards and appreciate all the hardships rather than complain , to find the beauties in the despair of life .Liz sets a good example to us and I am convinced that as long as we keep on moving , one day we will achieve our goals !

When Liz was standing on Harvard University platform, a reporter asked her: “Liz, how did you do this?” Liz answered：“How can I not do it？My parents showed me what possibility was.” Don’t you admire her?! Aren’t you touched by her words?! Wanna a Thumbs- up for her? Absolutely YES!

All of us can change our fate, if we have dream and double efforts. We need to face reality optimistically .No matter how many difficulty we may meet in our life, choose our road to reach our goal until our life becomes meaningful! Don’t complain our misfortune! Rainbow won't been seen until you have experienced difficulties. Just as Liz says, “I’m smart, I know I can succeed. I just need a chance, a chance to climb out of this place I was born in. It’s very improbable, but not impossible”

Sometimes we just need the courage to say that we have no choice but being successful, the courage to say that we must try harder to win more respects, the courage to say that I am gonna work as hard as I possibly can, and see what will happen!

Guys, as you are fighting, please keep in mind---If you think you can, you can!

That’s all, thank you!

2015年4月15日