“One day,” said Leigh-Anne, “I left my office on East
Second Street in Vidalia and walked across the road to
the church to see them. I said, ‘I know you didn’t think I
was listening because I kept making wrong choices, but
I was listening. You walked through all of that with me.’
They literally saved my life. I wanted them to know that
I actually made it.” Their love and words had taken root
even though the fruit could not yet be seen.
In her senior year of high school, all the love and
wisdom she’d felt and heard gave her the strength she
needed to make a change. “I went to my school counselor
and asked what I needed to do to get into college. She was
kind of harsh because my grades were really bad. She said,
‘You’ll be lucky if you can get into college.’ It hurt to hear,
but it was the honest truth. It was what I needed to hear
to get serious about how things were. I was on track to
graduate, but barely,” said Leigh-Anne.
When she learned that her best friend Leah had
been accepted into Georgia Southern University, Leigh-
Anne started classes at East Georgia State College on the
Georgia Southern University campus so she could be with
her friend. “I knew I would have to prove myself before I
could transfer into GSU,” she said.
College proved a real turning point. “I got connected
with some girls in my apartment complex, and we started
doing some prayer groups. I was also invited to rush for a
sorority, which was the accountability I needed to keep up
my grades and get involved in community service.”
Leigh-Anne planned to become a teacher. That is,
until she discovered she would be required to take a
certification test. With all she’d been through in her
childhood, she struggled with self-confidence. “I just
didn’t believe in myself enough to think I could pass that
big test.” To avoid the test, she changed her major to
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