Then you kind of look around and say, what else can life do? Does it have to be negative? You become impressed with -- it's changeable and things don't have to be the way they are.

I need to take advantage of life right now. If I don't, it will pass me by. It's just that easy.

Like my mother, I was always saying, 'I'll fix my life one day.' It became clear when I saw her die without fulfilling her dreams that my time was now or maybe never.

My mother used to sit at the foot of my bed, and she would share her dreams with me.

One point of view gives a one dimensional world. (Liz Murray.. a brilliant homeless teen who got a scholarship to an Ivy League school).

I have just one black and white photograph left of my mother when she was younger. She was 17 when it was taken and beautiful with wispy curls and eyes that shone like dark marbles.