I read this memoir last summer and ran across it on the shelves today while looking for Tobias Wolff books for Brad. It’s a fascinating story of the childhood of Lauralee Summer who grew up in poverty and homelessness and went to college at Harvard. Ben Casnocha, I recommend that you read this book in your voluminous spare time as you think about college choices. Pros and cons, food for thought.
from p. 223
During the first week, we attended many orientation sessions about diversity. At one of these gatherings, the speaker asked the audience of two hundred to raise their hands if they were from working-class backgrounds. I looked over the heads of the mass of students and saw seven raised hands, one of which was my own. Only seven out of two hundred Harvard students were from working-class families. My mother and I were not even working class; we were welfare class. During Freshman [sic] Week, I met many students whose parents owned companies, had millions of dollars, or were faculty at other elite universities. It was a shock to learn that such people existed in my own world.
The Audre Lorde quote in my last post is from the epigraph from Chapter 28 of this book (p. 266).
A poem written by an anonymous homeless youth is the main epigraph:
we are not lost
we know where we are
but our itinerary is chance and weather
we do not believe in destinations
and we are in no hurry
we have learned patience
from statues in a thousand parks
and joy from dogs without collars.
Thoughts In Random Patterns 