"Well, before I went to undergrad, I was homeless. I was 17 years old and hadn't been in school since I was 12 (I was home schooled and my parents divorced). I had no transcripts, no GED, and no family in the state. Some friends of mine were visiting a university in a neighboring state and I joined them. I discovered that because my mother (whom I hadn't spoken with in a year) lived in that state, I could get grants to go there. I returned to the broken-down Pontiac Grand Am I was sleeping in, determined to go to that university. The first thing I had to do was get a GED. The nearest testing site was over 20 miles away. I didn't have any friends who were willing to drive me there, and as previously mentioned, the car was broken down. So I walked there, took the first days test, and walked most of the way back before a cop picked me up because he'd heard reports of someone walking down the side of the interstate. Fortunately, the cop took mercy on me and drove me to my broke-down car.
A friend heard about what I had done and graciously drove me to the testing site the next day. I finished the GED and prepared to go to the university.
I showed up at the university with 10$, a GED, no transcripts, and no ACT or SAT. The university said I could sleep in the dorms for the night, but they wouldn't know if they could accept me until I took the ACT the next morning (!). I couldn't sleep that night. I hadn't had any formal schooling since I was 12 and I'd never studied for the ACT in my life. I took the test and scored a 28 (damn that 18 in math...). I was in. I couldn't afford textbooks for the first 3 semesters, but I borrowed them from friends when I could and worked hard. I managed a 3.0 after the first three semesters and finally got enough money to buy books. I graduated with a 3.34 and because of my LSAT scores, I received a scholarship to go to law school. I am now about to be a 3L, a year away from being an attorney.
Throughout my educational journey, the 20+ mile walk to get my GED has served as a microcosm of sorts. I was tired, so tired, but I just focused on taking that next step knowing that I was one step closer to where I wanted to be. The thought of my younger siblings pushed me forward. I knew that if I could make it, then they would look to my example and pursue an education as well. As I write this, my youngest brother, now 17, is sleeping in the next room. He lives with me and I am guiding his educational journey. I helped him get his GED and he was recently accepted to a state university where he will major in biology. He aspires to be a doctor.
tl;dr I was homeless with little education and I had to walk over 20 miles to get my GED. I put myself through college and now I'm almost done with law school. I am now helping my brother reach his educational goals as well."
"I am doing this AMA with some misgivings. I am a private person and have never discussed my history. I also expect you all to be skeptical, because I have no pictures to prove my story (we never had a camera and the few pics I have of my childhood were takn outside the slums). All I can say is, I am doing this because I need to let this out. And preferably not to anyone I know or work with.
I expect to cover my actual slum life through your questions, so I will provide the before and after stories. My parents were naive and foolish in their youth. They moved to Delhi from West Bengal when they were both 20 and still college students. They had fallen out with their families over reasons I cannot get into. An older "friend" had promised my dad part-time employment that would allow them both to complete their education. Within a year, my mom got pregnant (I said they were foolish). Due to complications during pregnancy, my mom spent two months in hospital prior to my birth. It was at then that the "friend" turned out to be a scheming bastard. Upshot - my dad was penniless, without a job or degree and saddled with my mom's hospital bills. A friend - a genuine one - got my dad a place in the slums in South Delhi. At first, my dad figured it would be a few months, maybe a year. It took 12 years.
Initially, they had planned to send my mom and me to stay somewhere with relatives while my dad got his degree and a job. My mom did not like this at all, and in a few months she and I moved in to the slums with dad. For a few years, my mom and I had several medical issues that often needed hospitalization. Because my mom did not want to just leave me in the "jhuggi", she could only take on low-paying work (she did not go back to college until I was 7). I was a big drain on their finances - my parents insisted on sending me to a "good" school. It was run by catholic missionaries, and the fees were reasonable by middle-class standards, but not for us. They also insisted on regular doctor visits and had to buy me stuff (uniforms, books) that were basically priced for middle-class folk. Were it not for this, we could have been out of the slum years earlier.
Anyhow, my dad completed his degree, did well at work and by the time I was 12, we were able to move out to a rented one-bedroom place in a middle-class neighbourhood. In all that turbulence of moving, our new situation did not sink in until a few days later. I will never forget this one incident - our new furniture had arrived, and due to a screw-up, they needed to take back the sofa. My mom explained this to my dad when he returned from work, explaining that they would take another 3-4 days to send the sofa. They stared at each other for a minute, and then fell into each other's arms, laughing and crying uncontrollably.
Today (18 years later), both my parents (with master's degrees in economics) hold reasonably well-paid corporate jobs. They're certainly not rich, but they get by - they bought an apartment recently. I work as a s/w engineer in the Pacific Northwest of the US.
There's so much more I could say, but I will leave it for your questions. Fire away."
