If there's any doubt that you can accomplish any dream that you set your mind to, no matter the odds, then Ieshia Champs is more than enough inspiration to look to. Champs wanted to be a lawyer since she was 7 years old. In her teenage years, however, the odds began stacking up against her:
Her father was gone.
Her mom was on drugs.
She was homeless.
She was a single mom.
It seemed like every roadblock in life kept coming at her, until a miracle happened.
"I really didn't have any stable guidance at that time. My mom was addicted to drugs. My dad was deceased. And I was homeless," Champs told CBS News. "I lived with friends or whoever would take me in. Then I got pregnant with the first of my five children, and things just went from there."
Ieshia dropped out of high school and got a job at a call center to support her growing family. Then, in 2009, when Ieshia was pregnant with her fourth child, she suffered another catastrophic loss:
She lost her home to a fire.
She lost her job.
She lost her children's father to cancer.
And then, she says, she lost her sanity.
(Most of us would in that situation too!)
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In the very pit of deep, dark depression, Iesha tried to commit suicide. Shortly afterward, she received a phone call from her pastor that changed her life.
"Pastor Louise Holman called me one day and said that God told her to tell me to go back to school and get my GED, because that lawyer I wanted to be, I'll be it!" Champs recalled. "I thought it was a little crazy because I was too old and I had three children with my fourth child on the way."
"I never told her I wanted to be a lawyer," Champs told USA TODAY.
But if God had willed it, this woman of faith figured she should probably listen. Ieshia put her "big-girl panties" on and enrolled back in school and eventually got her GED. But she didn't stop there.
Then she went on to Houston Community College and got her degree, and to the University of Houston-Downtown after that.
Now she's set to graduate from Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law in May 2018! And not only that, she will graduate Magna Cum Laude Despite what people may have said or even the negative thoughts that she has had herself, Ieshia will walk across that stage and fulfill her destiny spoken over her life more than a decade ago.
Now, Holman's husband, church leader Bishop Richard Holman captured her epic graduation photos that set social media on fire. She said she wants others to know there's a higher power behind her degree. The photo rapidly garnered tens of thousands of likes on social media, with comments rolling in from all corners of the country.
"As a mother and a woman who's interested in law school - I'd love to ask her of her best advice in deciding to pursue & thrive in law school," one Instagram user wrote, adding, "Congraaaaaaaats! #goals"
So you think you're too old, too poor, too out of shape, or have too much baggage? Think again! Ieshia Champls said you can!
