[00:05.32]Years ago, while unearthing an ancient Egyptian tomb, an archaeologist came upon seeds buried in a piece of wood.
[00:14.35]Planted, the seeds realized their potential after more than 3,000 years!
[00:20.23]Are the conditions in the lives of people so discouraging, so defeating,
[00:25.74]that human beings — regardless of inherent potentiality — are doomed to lives of failure and quiet desperation?
[00:33.25]Or are there also seeds of possibility in people, an urge for becoming that is so strong that the hard crust of adversity is breached?
[00:42.28]Consider this story from the Associated Press on May 23, l984:
[00:48.60]As a child, Mary Groda did not learn to read and write. Experts labeled her retarded.
[00:55.46]As an adolescent, she “earned” an additional label, “incorrigible,” and was sentenced to two years in a reformatory.
[01:03.63]It was here, ironically, in this closed-in place, that Mary — bending to the challenge to learn — worked at her task for as long as 16 hours a day.
[01:14.63]Her hard work paid off. She was awarded her (GED) high school diploma.
[01:20.51]But more misfortune was to visit Mary Groda.
[01:24.54]After leaving the reformatory, she became pregnant without benefit of marriage.
[01:29.76]Then, two years later a second pregnancy resulted in a stroke, erasing her hard-earned powers of reading and writing.
[01:38.58]With the help and support of her father, Mary battled back, regaining what she had lost.
[01:44.91]In a bad financial situation, Mary went on welfare.
[01:48.72]Finally, to make ends meet, she took in seven foster children.
[01:54.05]It was during this period that she started taking courses at a community college.
[01:59.28]Upon completion of her course work, she applied to and was accepted by the Albany Medical School to study medicine.
[02:07.55]In the spring of 1984 in Oregon, Mary Groda gave a speech at commencement.
[02:13.76]No one can know what private thoughts went through Mary’s mind as she reached out to grasp this eloquent testimony to her self-belief and perseverance,
[02:24.04]her diploma that announced to all the world:
[02:26.89]Here stands on this small point of Planet Earth a person who dared to dream the impossible dream,
[02:34.22]a person who confirms for all of us our human divineness. Here stands Mary Groda.
