Claressa Hinton learned early there would always be things she couldn’t control. But that’s not surprising for someone who moved between 30 and 40 times between ages two and 18, who sometimes didn’t go to school at all because her parents couldn’t get her there. It was a turbulent childhood marked by failing grades, a dearth of dreams, a paralyzing fear she wouldn’t graduate from high school, and little of the structure she craved.
And yet.
Here she is in a new home she bought herself last spring from earnings helping children growing up like she did. Here she is, sitting on the plush mint-green sofa her daughter helped her choose when they moved in. And there they are in front of her – the two framed diplomas, tassels hanging from the top edge of each – reminding her that she can do whatever she wants if she tries hard enough. Claressa Hinton, who had to repeat third grade, who was told by a teacher that she could neither read nor write well, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. That’s one degree more than that teacher, she’ll tell you if you ask.
“Even when I’m sitting here, I look at these things and think about how, whatever you’re determined to do, it’s a self thing,” she said. “Whatever intrinsic motivation you have, you’re the person who will determine how your story will end. You can’t tell how it will start, but you can tell how it will end.”