✍️ Generally, memoirs like this, telling stories of self-made individuals, are divided into two parts. The first part narrates the unfavorable environment in which the person was born and grew up, while the second part details the road to success. What I like and found freshing about this memoir is its focus on Ruth Simmons' childhood and teenage years. Simmons writes clearly about every transitional moment she experienced during her schooling years, against the backdrop of her family's poverty and the segregated America of the 1950s.