“I am so happy to be home,” Murray says. “I feel grounded here because I have people who care about me, and I have my dad close by.”
Murray says, however, that she is ready for the media frenzy to end so that she can become a “normal person” again.
Murray gazes out the window of the diner at the subway overpass nearby, her green eyes calmly surveying her surroundings.
Coming to terms with the lack of fit and poor timing that characterized her relationship with Harvard seems to have lent Murray some perspective.
Reflecting on her life, Murray says that external factors alone cannot determine success or failure.
“Just like homelessness can infringe upon your future, drugs can do that, procrastination can do that,” Murray says. “I think that it’s all internal, and I can definitely relate.”
“There are always those external forces, problems in your life,” she says calmly. “It’s what going on inside your head that counts.”
—Staff writer Rebecca D. O’Brien can be reached at robrien@fas.harvard.edu.