Andre Norman: HOW I WENT FROM GANG LIFE TO HARVARD

I said, yo, I figured it out. I'm going home. I'm going to go to Harvard. I'm going to be successful. It was like silence, like this. They wanted to laugh at me. They wanted to laugh at me, but I had a habit of stabbing people, so nobody laughed. Then my buddy pulled me to the side and said, dre, what are you talking about? You can't go to Harvard. I said, why? He said, you're black. He said, you can't do this. He said, you're a gang member. He said, you're poor. You're one of us. This is our space. This is our allotment in life. I'm like, no, this is my dream. And I walked away from my friends. I went by myself, and I wrote out my little plan. I came up with a plan. I said, these are the things that I want. Harvard University. I looked in the mirror. I said, what's inside of me that's stopping this dream from happening? I stopped blaming other people. It's not my dad's fault. It's not my mom's fault. It's not the kids who threw rocks at me fault. What's inside of me that is stopping this from happening?