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AWESOME! WOMAN GOES FROM HOMELESS TO HARVARD GRADUATE

Black Women in Education

AWESOME! WOMAN GOES FROM HOMELESS TO HARVARD GRADUATE

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. 51-year-old Norma Heath is proof of that.

Born in Honduras, Norma’s family moved to Boston when she was four years old.

“We moved to a Black neighborhood. And being from a different country, kids used to tease me, pick on me and beat me up,” confesses Norma. “I couldn’t speak proper english. I looked different. My hair was different. My clothing was different and kids used to pick on me.”

Four years later, the family moved to a new neighborhood.

“We moved to a white neighborhood and they didn’t accept me either,” Norma says. “That’s when the self-hatred began.”

At just 12-years-old Norma turned to drugs and alcohol. “My drug of choice was crack cocaine and marijuana. And everything that came with it: the lying, the stealing, the prostitution, I did it.”

She eventually found herself homeless.

Then trying to make ends meet, Norma got a job, but then was dealt another blow…

 

Please read original article – AWESOME! WOMAN GOES FROM HOMELESS TO HARVARD GRADUATE

I am a future butterfly at the stage of growth when I am turning into an adult. I am enclosed in a hard case shell formed by love, family, and friends. It is the hardest stage of becoming a black butterfly. You will encounter many hardships only to come out stronger and better than what you went in. At this stage, you are finding out who you truly are and how to love yourself.

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