I read a short story about a man served prison sentence for eight years and was released at the age of 24. He didn’t know how to get a driver’s license. It took eight trips… He had not been taught the basics of life’s administration. He worked at a local book store, where he fell in love. He married and had two children. He was invited to work at Harvard. Despite the odds, he became a lawyer, championed by his peers and professors. And look at him now! His story on New York Times has reached millions around the globe.
He could have given up, citing life’s compounded unfairness on his black body. Having no father to look up to. The unfairness of the criminal injustice system. How the bar may not even allow him to practice despite him getting full marks. He had enough reasons to give up. No one would have blamed him.
He reminds us.
We are not a sum of our circumstances. We are a product of the choices we make. The things we do. The things we don’t.