Elizabeth Murray (born (1980-09-23)September 23, 1980) is an American inspirational speaker who is notable for having been accepted by Harvard University despite being homeless in her high school years.
Many nights, I longed for home. But it occurred to me as I struggled for a feeling of comfort and safety: I have no idea where home is.
Anything that is within someone else's reach is also within yours. Set your goals no matter how impossible they may seem. Then focus on what is between you and that goal. And then, simply take out the obstacles as they come.
Success creates opportunities for other people.
If I had a magic wand, I would live in a building in New York, big enough so my friends, my family could all have apartments in it. We'd raise our kids in the same space and have backyard barbecues and get old and fat together.
My mother used to sit at the foot of my bed and she would share her dreams with me.
There's always a way through things if you work hard enough and look close. It all depends on your level of determination.
This fork in the road happens over a hundred times a day, and it's the choices that you make that will determine the shape of your life.
But avoidance allows you to believe that you're making all kinds of strides when you're not.
Shortly after I turned 13, Child Welfare took me into care. I was sent to a residential centre where girls with behavioural problems were 'evaluated'. My time there comes back to me now only in flashes of smells, images and sounds.
I've learned in my life that you really don't know what's possible until you're already doing it.
When you go back to your environment and you deal with employees. . . do you inspire people or do you make them feel fear? Do you make them feel confident or incompetent? I think that distinction really marks the leader.
I'd been living on the streets of New York, and I was sleeping at my friends' houses, sometimes in the subway.
You are bigger than your circumstances.
The lesson that people can't give me what they don't have, and if there's anything I took from it, it was: okay, I don't really expect anyone to hand me anything. There's going to be me and the world.
Life takes on the meaning that you give it.