Leeds grew up in a slum with both drug addict and AIDS parents and an alcoholic and schizophrenic mother. The people around her were plagued by poverty, everyone was angry, exhausted, and they were just struggling to survive.
Life pushes you to the bottom so you can climb higher. Perhaps it is because of her ups and downs that she is more eager to succeed than others.
The death of her mother made her realize that she is a person and that only she can save herself. She went to enroll in public school and completed four years in two years. "I just needed a chance, a chance to climb out of the environment I was born in. I know a better world and I want to live there."
She did. She was successfully admitted to her dream Harvard University and applied for a New York Times scholarship. A door is opening to her, and inside is her dream of a better world, away from poverty and ignorance, away from the gray life.
We live in a better environment than her. There is a loving mother, not a rich but warm family. Go to a good or bad university, get good grades in studies, and have a rich after-school life. Perhaps little Liz will never understand the pain of robbing her mother for the only money she has in a small, dark room to keep her from buying drugs. Couldn't understand her desperation as she watched her mother go to rehab.
In this warm world we live in, dreams are exhausted. Life is pretty decent, so there's no urgency to change the status quo.
In fact, we all have ideals, but we do not have the strong desire and determination of Leeds.
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