Diontre grew up as the youngest of five children. She was rich in the fact that she was surrounded by family, but they were not well off. Her mom did not have a high school diploma and never held a steady job. However, Diontre and her siblings never realized their family lived paycheck to paycheck.
In high school, Diontre skipped so much school during her senior year that she was kicked out. The principal told her she could not graduate. Diontre was devastated and upset with herself. She met with the principal and a counselor to work out a plan. Through hard work, perseverance and a stringent schedule, she graduated. Among her group of friends, five girls had routinely skipped school with her. Diontre was the only one of the five that graduated. She refused to take “no” for an answer.
When Diontre became a mother herself, she was determined to provide the best life possible for her family. That started with the decision to leave her hometown where she felt she had burnt too many bridges.
When she moved to Dallas in 2015, she made the difficult decision to send her two children to Georgia to live with family while she tried to get on her feet. The father of her children was not in the picture. It was hard to start over and heartbreaking to be away from her children. During her one-hour commute to work every day, she often broke down in tears in the car. Diontre felt stupid, defeated and ashamed.
Things finally started to turn around when she got approved for an apartment on her own. That was the lightbulb moment when she started forgiving herself for the mistakes she had made.
