5th floor lecture hall at Baruch College. Taken on the day of an Economics Final Examination. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Some of us groan about our SAT experience or having to wash dishes for spending money in the cafeteria, but for others, the typical middle-class college tribulations were non-issues because just getting accepted and managing to stay enrolled were the real challenges.

Kathleen Megan, writing in the Hartford Courant, offers a compelling read covering four recent degree-earners who had to dig through serious rubble just to get to class on time.

“Getting into and graduating from college is never easy, but there are factors that make it even harder: Growing up in poverty. Suffering neglect and abuse as a child. Having a child at an early age. Suffering mental illness…”

They’re all inspiring stories of not accepting our own excuses and avoiding the victimhood often bestowed upon us by society. And there’s a lesson, too, in understanding the human spirit and its ability to get us through adversity. Or, in the examples of the four students, multiple adversities, one after another.

“When Khaliyl Lane was a little boy, he liked to ride his bike down the road to visit his good friend, Mike Allison. ‘I’d take a peek at what a real family is supposed to look like,’ Lane said. ‘I was always envious of the fact that they had so much love for one another.’

“Though he was only age 6 or 7, Lane knew his life wasn’t normal. His mother didn’t pay much attention to him or his younger brother. He didn’t know the word neglect, but he knew his mother acted differently from other mothers.”

There’s an almost magically redemptive effect in wiping our slates clear of bad experiences, mistakes and squandered opportunities. Morgan’s story tells us of sheer self-discipline from knowing “deep down” it’s the only way to stay on course and of teachers with lessons on maintaining perspective and creating your own reality.

“Born to a 17-year-old mother who dropped out of high school, (Denise) Poventud, a graduate of Weaver High School, was determined ‘not to be a product of my circumstances. … To stop the cycle.’

“Her mother, Mayda Rodriguez, had run away from home and spent time homeless, sleeping in hallways when Poventud was a newborn. Rodriguez shared her daughter’s ambition. ‘She was not going to go down my route,’ Rodriguez said. ‘She was going to do better.’

Please take a few minutes to read it all!

The take-away for me is that we should prepare ourselves for “surmounting” as a daily routine. Even on the “peaks”—as Dr. Spencer Johnson describes—of easier times we know they are inevitably followed by the experience of climbing out of valleys.

My speaking engagement at the Tucson Festival of Books is presented by the Arizona Daily Star. The newspaper is staging two days of keynote speeches by some very notable writers and thought leaders.

Their Saturday, March 13 session, in which I will speak, is built around the theme of dealing with tough times.

From the Star…

If you want to help yourself but aren’t quite sure how, let the Star‘s lineup of inspirational authors, dubbed “Help for Tough Times,” show you the way.

“We have assembled the most inspiring authors we know to provide an unprecedented day of life-changing learning and discussion,” Star Publisher and Editor John M. Humenik said. “We know people are struggling at the workplace and at home due to terrible economic conditions. Our authors have answers to questions many of us don’t even know to ask.”

The list of speakers reads like an all-star shelf of self-help books come to life. [Full story here.]

Kudos to the Star for a thoughtful community service!