Nobody knew the junior class president was homeless. Shanita didn’t want to burden her friends with the news. More importantly, the Asheville, North Carolina, native feared that because she was under age, she would be separated from her mother.

Shanita’s mother, a certified nursing assistant, struggled to pay the bills after becoming estranged from her husband. Though some community members had rallied to raise money for their rent, the help came too late, and nearby relatives were unable to take them in due to subsidized housing regulations.

“I felt like it was just me and my mom in the world,” said Shanita. “We packed up our lives and slept in the car for a couple of nights. We had too much pride to go to the shelter.”

Shanita and her mother placed their belongings into a storage unit and moved from motel to motel. “One motel was very run down. We couldn’t figure out how the heater worked, and there weren’t enough blankets,” Shanita explained. She and her mother both sought extra work to minimize their time in the cold motel room.

“We were moving out the next morning, after she finished a 12-hour shift. As we were driving, my mom started crying, saying she felt like a failure. But that was the last thing I believed. I was mad at everyone but her, so I wrote her a poem to let her know our homelessness wasn’t her fault.”

The poem was titled, “Home,” and spoke to the ‘home’ Shanita found just being in her mother’s presence.

Once Shanita graduated, she considered not going to college so she could stay home and help. Her mother wouldn’t let her. “Getting an education is one thing my mama always said to do,” explained Shanita.

Shanita was accepted to Berea, and these days she is feeling less alone. “I have met at least two [students] who share similar stories, and it’s nice to know that it is not just me. I don’t see a future for myself if I hadn’t come to Berea.”