Chapter Five: A Better Path Summary and Analysis

In the book's final chapter, Tough relies on his own observations and thoughts to tie up the book's themes and messages. Tough reveals that when he was a freshman at Columbia University, the same age Kewauna Lerma is now, he dropped out. Although he's gone on to lead a successful life and have a successful career, his research for the book has raised the question time and time again: why did he choose to drop out, and if he had pushed himself harder, would he be a college graduate now? He had felt somewhat out of place after moving to New York and always had an academically rebellious side, but at the heart of his decision, he realized, was a deep desire to do "something uncertain, unsafe; something I didn't know if I...