Realizing she was on a terrible path, Ginny tried to get clean and get straight, but she was lost to an unbreakable cycle of addiction. Her last trip to prison was in 2008, where she was locked away for 33 months.
After managing to stay clean for six months after she got out, she eventually relapsed. Then she was arrested on December 5, 2012, for the final time.
“I was in a stolen truck,” she said:
“A really slow one. I pulled out and a cop turned on the lights to pull me over for a light that was out. I took off and he chased me. I almost crashed into a tree in front of an apartment building. And that was it. that was the end.”
Only, it wasn’t the end. At least not the end of all hope.
After begging to be put on the Drug Diversion Court program, Ginny went through rehabilitation and treatment, where she was able to get, and this time stay, clean.
Determined to right the wrongs of her past, Ginny took up social service work for the Post Prison Education Program for seven years. It was there that she got the idea and inspiration to go to school.
She said: “It made me recognize how much time I had wasted in my life. And I also recognized that I was actually good at learning. something I enjoyed.”
Having taken classs at South Seattle College, Ginny would go on to apply to the University of Washington. In 2019, she was awarded a Martin Honor Scholarship to the UW.
At 47 years old, Ginny studied political science, and she excelled.
Recently, she uploaded two side-by-side photos to mark two extraordinarily different periods of her life. One, a mugshot from King County Jail in 2005, shows her at her lowest. The other shows her beaming in her graduation cap.
She wrote: “Today I’ve let go of feeling insecure about my age, the lines on my face, my genetics, my failures, and imposter syndrome to recognize that no matter what, if I’m still breathing, I can do anything I set my mind to. Graduating at 48 from the Political Science department at the University of Washington Seattle is a real accomplishment for this former quitter.”
Having read this woman’s tale of the lowest lows and the ultimate redemption, one simply can’t help but be inspired.
“I think it will be used for everybody else. Maybe I can be some kind of Pied Piper, to help people recover their own lives. That’s what I care about. There are some days that I wish I could just slip away here, with a garden, and open up a little cafe. But in reality I know it’s my job to continue to create hope.”
