“Buying the house I live in today is one of my greatest accomplishments. I didn’t graduate from high school. Instead of working on my academics, I wanted to be dumb. I was doing hoodrat things with my old crew, shooting, robbing, and selling dope. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I had my first kid at seventeen and my second child at eighteen. I was a single mother, going through hell and back for my children. I remember being abused by my first kid’s father, trying to escape him. I tried going back to school but the father of my son showed up with the intent to kill. He brought a gun with him, threatening to kill me and whoever I spoke with. I was scared for my life, so scared I dropped school and started to work. I didn’t stop working because I had my children as my motivation. This house I live in isn’t just a house, but a reminder of what I had to go through.”