Marysville Success Story

At Marysville Adult School, a grandmother’s promise to her granddaughter turned into a GED and a new beginning. Read in her own words how this student turned her life around, overcoming a troubled youth and adulthood prison term to become an inspiration for all.

My name is Sharon Fowler, and my “life” as an adult student began with a challenge from my granddaughter.  I raised her from the time she was four years old until now.  She is 17 now, and we found out at the age of 10 that she had learning disabilities.  I was determined that she would not go through what I did when I was young.  I couldn’t let what happened to me happen to her.  I took out loans to send her to schools that deal with disabilities.  She is a junior at the local high school and passed the high school exit exam in her sophomore year.  We made a promise that if she stayed on the honor roll, I would go back and get my education.  That promise turned on the light.

I was born in Bakersfield, CA, but since I was 12 years old, I was raised in a small rural community.  My family moved 23 times.  We went to wherever there was work, living in tents and farm-labor camps.  There wasn’t much work, and even less food.  We lived on beans and potatoes.  My father eventually got hurt on the job, and went through rehabilitation.  He learned a new trade and opened his own business.  That’s how we settled in the small town where I am located today.

All throughout my life, my mother became my archenemy, never encouraging, and always putting me down, saying that I wouldn’t amount to anything.  The only way I would be able to succeed in life and have any wealth, she said, would be to marry into money.  I managed to complete my freshman year of high school, but dropped out of school in an effort to find a way out of the violence and emotional abuse.  There was no light.

At the age of 16, I fell into drugs and gangs, and ended up getting married.  I was pregnant at 17 and divorced at 18.  I then remarried at 22, and had my second child.  I left my husband because he beat me horribly.  I was a single mom with two children and no way to support them. To support my children, I manufactured methamphetamine/crank.  My children would come home from school to find the drug on the table, the results of what I had manufactured that day.  That is no lifestyle for a mother to provide for her children, or to provide for herself.

I was subsequently arrested and put in prison.  My children were taken away and sent to their father.  I spent two long years in prison.  I finally got out of prison, and went into rehab at 40 years of age.  I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I went into a program called “Teen Challenge,” where I found God.  It was not easy, but resulted in a life-changing experience.  It was a military boot camp program, and required very physical labor.  We built houses, tore down chicken coops, and built fences, working from sun up to sun down.  I was a “hard cookie” when I left, complete with developed muscles and a defiant attitude:  there was nothing they could do to break me.  They found my weak points, however, and used them to give me strength I never had before.  There finally was a spark of light.

Through the love of my granddaughter and the promise I made to her, the light clicked on. I will be graduating this year, in June, from the GED program offered by the Marysville Adult School.  Here at the Adult School, I have learned to have hope for the future, overcome a learning disability, and use the entire experience as a catharsis while coming to grips with my past and embracing my abilities.
What made my time here special was the family atmosphere that is in evidence from the time you sign up for the program with the staff in the office, to that moment when the principal hands you your diploma when you graduate.  There was, is, and will be “care” in everyone’s eyes.  How can I ever thank Mr. Hicks, for example, when fractions had to be multiplied; or Billie Shurtz when I couldn’t tame a run-on sentence?  I was even given the first-annual Peacemaker and Achievement Award for perseverance in my studies, and the fact that I was able to forge bonds with my classmates which worked to the betterment of all concerned:  staff, teachers, and students.  You’d be surprised what wonders a warm pan of brownies can create.  These are irreplaceable elements of the whole experience here at the Marysville Adult School, and for them I am eternally grateful.

I will be attending college classes with my granddaughter in the not-too-distant future, and the journey will continue to be challenging.  My goal is to become a drug and alcohol counselor, and I am not going to let anything else in this world get in the way.  If I had a wish, I would wish that my future endeavors in college be surrounded and couched in the personal warmth and support I grew to appreciate at the Marysville Adult School.

At least now, my granddaughter and I have light by which to travel.