This is a true story about someone in the #PowerAddicts community, but not quite brave enough, or ready to share her identity. Therefore, we will call her Jessica! It is a tale of an underdog, a girl who literally has fought for her life at times, to obtain financial stability and a sense of worth. Sometimes she just had a bad break in life, and sometimes she made awful decisions that made things more difficult. Regardless, Jessica continued to fight and push through. She hopes that her story will encourage others to always believe in themselves, and understand that the past, and who you were, doesn’t have to hold you back from who you can become.
Jessica was born a ward of the State of Texas. Her biological mom moved away from her family for 9 months so she could hide the pregnancy and give her up for adoption. Jessica lived with a few foster families before being adopted by a wealthy couple. Life was supposed to be happily every after, but that ended quickly. The parents divorced and went to jail. Jessica was smuggled into to Canada for a short period of time, before going to live with her adopted mom’s grandparents.
Jessica lived with them until she was 5 years old. They were her world. Then one day a lady moved in across the street, and she was told that was her mom. She really didn’t understand what a mom was, or why she had to leave the only people she could remember loving her, but she didn’t have a choice. She quickly realized she had no use for this person that only caused her hurt and pain.
Jessica’s “mom” took her frustrations out on her, with her fists. Jessica suffered mental and physical abuse every day for the next 12 years. She was desperate for love, broken, and very confused by this world. However, these events would go on to shape who she would become, and the rest of her life.
School was the only place that this young girl found peace, and praise. She realized that if she worked hard, she got good grades, and liked the attention she got from teachers and others. She won awards and started to feel good about herself. She saw that education, and college was her ticket out of the hell hole she lived in.
Like many girls desperate for attention and love, Jessica had many boyfriends growing up. She thought they loved her, but they just used her. When she was 15 she ended up getting pregnant, and having an abortion. When her mom found out, she ran away, in fear of her life. This was a lady who would give her a black eye for not cleaning her room, what was she going to do to her now? Jessica would crash at friends houses, sleep in parks, and ride the city bus around all night when she had no where else to go. After two months, someone’s parent found out, and drove Jessica home. Things only got worse at home, and Jessica ended up moving out before high school was over.
Luckily Jessica graduated at the top of her class, and was offered many full ride scholarships. Soon into her freshman year she realized that she got more attention than she ever dreamed of by being the best party girl around! She got into drugs, and even arrested for possession. The girl that graduated at the top of her class, found herself struggling to not fail out of school. She lost her scholarship, and her hope.
In order to pay for school, Jessica worked 3 jobs, she served tables, bartended, and even worked at a strip club on the weekends to make extra money. This was the lowest part of her life, and to this day she still struggles with overcoming this period of her life. However, she knew that she was on a dead-end track, and had to keep fighting, no matter what it took to finish her degree, and make something of her life.
At 24 she found herself as a struggling single mom. She had no help from the father, or anyone else for that matter. She worked full time, went to school full time, and raised a baby all on her own. She knew that this was her opportunity to provide a better life for her child. A life that she never had.
After 10+ years of hard work, and bad decisions, she finally finished her degree. She started off working for various manufacturing, and construction companies. Then one day she got a chance to enter the IT world as a consultant. She had no clue what she was doing, but knew she had to give it a chance. Six months into her new career, she went to an App In A Day course, and discovered the Power Platform. In one day she realized that this amazing program could have changed the course of her life 10 years ago. She knew that it could change the life of others that had walked similar in shoes down similar paths.
Jessica works to share the Power Platform with as many people as she can. Especially, those that other people have given up on, and written off due to bad life decisions. Jessica knew that if she could do it, so could anyone else. Jessica is still growing, and still learning, and still rising, but her life is a complete 180 from where it used to be. She has inspired many of her friends, who are single moms to earn their degree. She speaks at user groups all over the world. Some people even look up to her!
She wants YOU to know that no matter what you have done, and where you have been, you do not have to stay there. Your journey makes you a better and stronger person. It’s easy to think that you don’t deserve better, but everyone does! Pour yourself into your passions, and the #PowerAddict community. Jessica gives all the credit of her recent success to this amazing group of people who do not care about anything other than helping others learn and grow.
“It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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