Persistence Over Perfection
As a little girl, Faye Briggs dreamed of becoming a lawyer.
She imagined herself walking across a college campus, convinced education could open the door to a different life.
Instead, life took her somewhere else.
By eleven, she had entered foster care after years of abuse. At thirteen, she was surviving on the streets after running away from home. At sixteen, she dropped out of school to work. The dream of college never completely disappeared, but with each passing year it felt less like a possibility and more like a life that belonged to someone else.
Adulthood brought new struggles. Faye battled addiction for years, and the pain she carried from childhood eventually led to prison. It became easy to believe that her future would simply repeat her past.
Then everything changed.
After the death of her father and a series of serious health diagnoses, Faye realized she could no longer continue living the way she had been.
"I realized that if I did not make serious changes, I might not have much of a future at all."
She entered long-term treatment and drug court. Recovery demanded honesty, discipline, and humility, but it also introduced her to hope, something she hadn't experienced in years. Surrounded by a recovery community that refused to let her give up on herself, Faye slowly began to believe that transformation was possible.
That belief opened the door to a dream she had buried decades earlier.
At twenty-seven, Faye earned her GED through adult education.
To many people, it might have looked like a simple credential. To Faye, it was proof that learning was still possible and that the classroom was no longer out of reach.
"I was proud of that accomplishment, but deep down I knew it was only the beginning. I wanted more for myself."
Adult education became her pathway back to the dreams she held as a young girl.
It gave her the confidence to enroll in community college, even though the transition wasn't easy. Her first attempt ended in disappointment as she struggled academically and questioned whether she truly belonged.
But recovery had already taught her that setbacks don't have to become endings.
When she returned to college, she approached it differently.
"I leaned on lessons learned in recovery: discipline, humility, and persistence."
This time, she asked for help. She accepted that growth would take time. And she discovered that persistence mattered far more than perfection.
Earning her associate degree was an academic milestone, but more than that, it was evidence that the woman who once believed she had missed her opportunity was still becoming who she was meant to be.
That momentum eventually led her to enroll in a bachelor’s degree program at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), where she balanced full-time coursework while raising two toddlers, working, and managing the demands of everyday life. Long days turned into late nights, but every semester strengthened her confidence.
Then something unexpected happened.
Acceptance into EKU's McNair Scholars Program transformed the way she saw herself. Surrounded by mentors and fellow researchers, she stopped thinking of herself as a nontraditional student trying to catch up and began to see herself as a scholar whose ideas mattered.
"The program gave me confidence that I was not just completing assignments; I was creating knowledge."
Today, Faye is preparing to complete her bachelor's degree before continuing into an MBA and eventually pursuing a PhD. She hopes to become both a CPA and a professor, investing in others the way mentors once invested in her.
Looking back, her comeback was built through a series of second chances that included recovery, adult education, community college, and university with each one expanding what she believed was possible.
Her story reminds us that transformation happens one courageous step at a time.
Sometimes the most important step is simply finding the pathway back.
For Faye, that pathway began with adult education.
Faye is one of fifty adult learners featured in Beyond the Degree: Stories of Adult Learner Comebacks and What They Teach Us. Read her complete story in her own words, and discover what these remarkable comebacks teach us, in the forthcoming book from the Center for Academic Innovation. Coming soon.