Tennessee Reconnect Spotlight will feature a first-person story each Friday...

After graduating from high in 2004, I attended Eastern New Mexico University to pursue my football career. I spent one year there enjoying my newfound freedom amongst my peers. I enjoyed myself too much and was not able to return the following fall semester to play football. I moved to Midland, TX where my parents lived and enrolled at the community college there. I spent one year there with the partying mindset still running full steam ahead. 

I would return for a semester or two during the next 10 years, trying to inch my way closer to a degree. Once I began making good money working, I began to give up on school. While working in the oilfield industry in Texas, I was making more money than people who had degrees, so I saw no reason to return to school. Although my desire has always been to work with youth and become a counselor, I dove deeper into my career and further my purpose.

My job transferred me to Dalton, GA in the summer of 2019 and I was down here for three months before moving my wife and son down here with me. After three months in Dalton, my job transferred me to Stockton, CA and I spent the whole month of November there until the manager in Chattanooga resigned. We made our way back this way and returning to school was not something I thought about. 

After getting planted here in Chattanooga, I begin connecting with some men at Destiny Church of Chattanooga. Those connections ignited the fire I once had for school. I began to learn that in order to fulfill our purpose in life, we must be equipped.  Equipped with the knowledge to serve others, equipped endurance to keep going when it gets tough, and being equipped with the wisdom to make the right decisions. The journey one takes to obtain academic success will add another tool to your tool belt as you tackle life’s obstacles

I am now excited and passionate about school, but still something was missing. I make good money but with four kids (three still in Texas), bills, and maintaining life, I cannot afford to pay for school. While driving home one day, my wife saw a sign on East Brainerd Road about TN Reconnect. That was the missing piece to the puzzle. Without TN Reconnect I would not have gone back to school. Chattanooga State’s faculty has encouraged me to keep moving forward and to push my way to the edge. Now that I am ready to jump over to the other side, I can look back and see how everything worked out for good.

It is easy to fear the unknown. In those moments I remind myself that I was not given a spirit of fear. I was given the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. I can now move forward in confidence because I know this long process will turn out better than I expect. I will be graduating this summer, majoring in Psychology and looking forward to two more years of growth at a university.

Greatness is waiting for YOU to arrive. Let’s head that way together!