My name is Meghan Flinn. I am 18 years old and from Gloucester City, NJ. I was raised in a seemingly perfect home. I had great Catholic schooling and was at the top of my class. Played sports and did normal things. When I was in middle school, my mom got very sick. She had 2 major strokes and went through a depressive state, which left me in charge of taking care of my brother and the house. My dad always escaped the reality by working. I started to play a role of covering everything up about the way I felt and slowly but shortly shut myself off from everything.
By the time I got to high school, I found drugs and friends who felt a false love, a place where I felt release. Through this, I stared running the streets at 15 and using heavy drugs. Anger was my outlet mostly. I was always fighting. By my junior year, I was expelled from my first school for fighting and drugs, and shortly after that I was leaving my second school. Everything spiraled down quickly after that. I ran looking to die. I went home in an attempt for hope and my mom called the police on me. That day I received my first felony charges and in another psych. Hospital. There I heard about a Teen Challenge Center and entered their program. I left after 11 months, thinking I was ready. I shortly relapsed after that and felt God calling me back, knowing in my heart He had a different purpose for my life.
Since being in Long Island, I’ve gone deeper into my faith. He is stretching and breaking me to the point where I can only be used for His purpose. He’s beginning to reveal to me a hope and destiny that I could have never accomplished in my own strength. For my future plans I would like to go to Bible School for Street Ministry. Hopefully, one day to have my own Women’s Program and give others a source of light who think there’s nothing left. The Scripture I stand on is Romans 8:38-39.