We all have different struggles in life, some more than others. There are stories aplenty of people overcoming adversities, fighting for their dreams and achieving some remarkable feats.?
Here is one such tale of a young boy that exemplifies what it means to not give up, no matter the challenges. Rehan Staton, from US state of Maryland, is no ordinary individual. He has faced hardships, but he has kept going and is about to take another step towards his dream.
The 18 year-old didn't have money to pay his college tuition and used to work as a trash collector just to pay his fee. Pulling it through somehow, he graduated from a college in Maryland.?
Yet, after facing an uphill battle just to get basic education, he is now headed to Harvard University, after being accepted to one of the premier universities in the world.??
After a turbulent upbringing, where his mother abandoned him, his father struggled to make ends meet to support him and his brother, and his hopes of becoming a professional boxer were cut short by a major injury, Staton took up a job at?Bates Trucking & Trash Removal sanitation company as a garbage collector.?
He said it was here that his ex-convict colleagues and the company owner's son Brent Bates saw his potential and helped him get the break he deserved.? ? ?
"It was the first time in my life people were lifting me up for the sake of lifting me up and not because I was good at sports," Staton told?CNN.?
"Throughout my entire life... all the people in my life who I was supposed to look up to were the ones who always downplayed me and made me feel bad about myself," he said.
"I had to go to the 'bottom' of the social hierarchy - that's to say formerly incarcerated sanitation workers - in order to be uplifted," he added.?? ? ?
After graduating in 2018, Staton took an analyst job at a consulting firm in Washington D.C. He eventually applied to law school, and was accepted to Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and Pepperdine University. (Georgetown University; New York University; the University of California, Berkeley; and UCLA placed him on their waitlist.)??
Ultimately, Staton chose Harvard Law School, and he'll start class this fall. A?GoFundMe?has been set up to raise funds for Staton's tuition and has raised more than $46,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.??