Liz Murray, author of “Breaking Night,” visits with Wallace State over Skype session in conjunction with college’s Common Read

HANCEVILLE, ALA. – Wallace State Community College recently had the opportunity to conduct a Skype session with Liz Murray, the author of “Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard.”
Murray, who grew up homeless in New York and is now working on her doctorate degree in psychology at Columbia University, shared her life’s experiences with Wallace State students, faculty and staff in conjunction with “Breaking Night,” which Wallace State is using this academic year as its campus-wide Common Read selection.
Murray, 35, was born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City. Her mother and father were drug addicts, and the family was consistently scrambling for money to purchase additional drugs once the welfare checks ran their course each month.
“I grew up in the inner city, urban ghetto. The scene I grew up in was full of gangs, drugs and violence. I grew up there because my parents partied too hard in the 1970’s and 80’s. They got high, used cocaine and partied like there was no tomorrow. My sister and I grew up in the aftermath after the party was over. Their party lifestyle actually became a full-blown drug addiction and that drug addiction changed our lives together,” said Murray to those in attendance.
Murray said the family received a welfare check at the beginning of each month, and by the time drugs were bought and groceries were accounted for, the check lasted for only eight or nine days.
“You knew it wasn’t going to be long before we ran out of everything and had a burning question of how we were going to eat,” said Murray, who added her parents might sell a television or a winter coat to pay for additional drugs. “What are the factors that make up poverty? So much of it is circumstance. Will we eat today or will we not eat today was a conversation we were having. My sister and I would knock on people’s door and ask to be fed. We would laugh about it together because we didn’t understand the significance, and we surely didn’t understand what was coming. We were surviving. We were good at that.”
Murray became homeless at 16 years old after her mother died and her father was moved to a homeless shelter. She resorted to sleeping on trains or at friends’ houses and was prone to shoplift from grocery stores.
Murray said she decided to get serious about high school around the same time other people her age were college freshmen. She made impressive grades and graduated by the time she was 19. Towards the end of her high school career, she joined her favorite instructor and some classmates on a visit to Harvard.
Murray completed a New York Times scholarship application to the Ivy League school, detailing how she overcame adversity in her life. She eventually received the scholarship over thousands of applicants and had a feature story written about her in the New York Times.
In 2003, the Lifetime Channel also depicted Murray’s story in “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story.”
“Having a movie made about your life is very bizarre, but it was a life-changer. One thing that came out of it was I received mail from all over the country. I was able to hear from other people and quickly realized everyone has a story. Who doesn’t know what it feels like to give up on themselves? I received letters from families who had lost their homes, people struggling with cancer and from people in prison. I received all sorts of sentiments and encouragement from all over the country,” Murray said.
Murray encouraged the Wallace State students, faculty and staff to pursue their “What if’s?” in life.
“No matter where I was sleeping or what I was doing, I never lost the voice in the back of my head telling me what I should be doing. What if went back to school? What if I got a job? We all have our ‘What if’s?’ I just had a hard time figuring out how to get there,” Murray said. “What is it that is holding you back? We are human beings. We put things off. We tell ourselves now is not a good time. We tell ourselves we will get all of the great things done later. Right now, I’ve just got to survive. The truth is we are all very good at surviving. I know we get cynical. I know we get overwhelmed. We think the world is filled with too many problems. I’m here to tell you there is something we all can do. It’s our job to put our best foot forward and try to positively influence our community and the people around us.”
Murray repeatedly proclaimed her love for her parents and family throughout the presentation and encouraged the Wallace State contingency to never lose hope when faced with adversity or tough circumstances in life.
“We may never meet in person, but I do know we all share the capacity to picture what our lives could be like. I think we all come into this world as children very excited for what’s possible. Life happens and we get a little beat up and a little cynical. We dial back our dreams. I think it’s important to fall in love with what’s possible for you,” Murray said. “Once your energy is not caught up in what you don’t have or what you’re not doing, it will free you up to work harder with what you do have. Choice by choice and little by little, keep working to carve out the absolutely best life for yourself.”
Wallace State’s Sally Warren, an English instructor and Common Read committee member, said the college was honored to have Murray visit via the Skype session.
“It was important and meaningful because it put a real face with the story. We’ve received a lot of good feedback, including students saying how inspired and uplifted they were by Liz Murray being so accessible. She was warm and engaging,” Warren said. “Since the event, a lot of my students have shared their personal stories through writing assignments. They’ve said they experienced something in their childhood similar to what Liz Murray might have experienced. It may not have been as extreme, but it was very hard at the time. They were interested to know how Liz Murray got through it, and they hope they can apply some of the lessons from the book and her speech to help them continue to get through it.”
For more information about Wallace State, visit www.wallacestate.edu.
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Russell Moore
Staff Writer
Wallace State Community College
P.O. Box 2000, Hanceville, AL 35077
1-866-350-9722    256-352-8443 direct
Visit us online at www.wallacestate.edu
 
Kristen Holmes
Communications & Marketing Director, and
Administrator, The Evelyn Burrow Museum
Wallace State Community College
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E-mail: kristen.holmes@wallacestate.edu
Office: 256.352.8118 | Cell: 256.339.2519 | Toll Free: 866.350.9722