September 11, 2019

Entering her sophomore year, Destiny was ditching class, not doing her work, and getting into a lot of trouble at school. She knew she was headed down the wrong path, but she didn’t feel motivated to change because no one was holding her accountable.

“I went to a huge high school with thousands of students,” she said. “I felt like I was just a number. I was doing things I wasn’t supposed to because I knew no one was paying attention. I didn’t care about being at school.

“I kind of fell between the cracks and gave up, in a way, on my education. I didn’t take it that seriously.”

Once a good student, Destiny let her grades hit rock bottom because she no longer viewed school as a learning environment. Instead, she saw it as a place to socialize.

“School was just a place where I could see my friends, then leave,” she said. “I had no respect and didn’t value getting an education.”

All of this put a strain on her relationship with her mother, who had a full house under her care, including Destiny’s brother, sister, and cousins.

“Things weren’t great between my mom and I,” Destiny said. “There was a lack of communication on both ends. There were things I needed to tell her, but we had to build trust, and trust was something we didn’t have at that moment.”

Desperate for a solution, her mother searched for options until she settled on one that felt right—Mercy Home. Destiny knew she needed an outlet where she felt supported, so she agreed to move in.

“I wanted to come to Mercy Home because I felt like they could offer me a lot of help and it was help that I didn’t have [before],” she said. “It was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Immediately, she set her sights on improving her grades.

“I always had potential to do great [but] I just didn’t really apply myself,” she said. “When I came to Mercy Home, I had to make that change.”

To get her focus back in the right place, Mercy Home helped her enroll in a smaller school where individual attention helped her thrive.

Her grades soon reflected the positive changes Destiny was making in her life.

“Mercy Home has helped me in school because I went from having a 2.1 GPA to ending my first quarter of senior year with a 3.37 GPA,” she said. “They’ve helped me so much as far as tutors and extra support.”

With her sights set on the University of Wisconsin, Destiny intends to double major in fashion design and fashion merchandising. She is thankful for the career skills she’s learned at Mercy Home, some through an internship she held over the summer.

And as a creative person, Destiny enjoys the art therapy she participates in at Mercy Home and how it helps her express herself.

“It helps me because if I’m having a hard day or I’m kind of stressed about something, I can always pick up a canvas and express that, but in a positive way,” she explained. Meanwhile, she’s full of gratitude for everyone who helped her make such an impressive turnaround, especially good friends like you.  

“I’m so thankful for Mercy Home because they believed in me at a time when I did not believe in myself,” Destiny said. “They saw greatness in me when I didn’t see it. Thanks to them, I learned to love myself. Mercy Home helped me transform into the person I was always supposed to be.”

So this Giving Tuesday, we hope you will consider supporting kids in need—kids just like Destiny.

“I think giving to Mercy Home on Giving Tuesday is important because we all depend on each other and this is a great place that really fights hard to save children,” Destiny said. “When you give anything … I think that really matters and it shows that other people care about us.

“Thank you for donating to Mercy Home and helping kids like me.”