We love to see alumni come home and serve our community! Hear from Chesney Hearn. class of 2013, about her story as well as coming back to provide covid vaccines to her alma mater!
It is hard for me to believe that my time at LCA was so many years ago. There are a lot of days I miss LCA and the simplicity of life in high school, but I am truly so happy with where the Lord has me these days.
After I graduated in 2013, I went on to attend the University of North Georgia in Oconee with the intention of pursuing a Biology/Pre-Med degree. I commuted from home for the first year of school, and honestly it was difficult for me. Watching my friends go away to school and make new friends was a challenging season to be in, but the Lord was so near to me in that year, and we spent so much time together that I had never had before. I ended up moving to UNG in Dahlonega for the next few years of school & was able to room with my best friend from LCA. During this time, I realized I hated the classes I was in and the Lord was shifting me away from the degree I was pursuing. I knew I wanted to be in the medical field and there was no doubt about that. After many prayers, tears, and conversations, I switched my major to pre-nursing. Long story short, I was rejected from nursing school twice, then waitlisted, then told that no one ever gets off the waitlist. I felt so discouraged and confused, and I frequently cried out, “Lord what in the world are you doing??” But He remained so faithful.
One day, in the middle of September 2017, I opened my email while at work, and sitting there was an acceptance letter to nursing school saying I had gotten off the waitlist and could start in January. I have no words to tell you the awe I felt for the Lord in that moment. I started nursing school the following year in 2018, and believe me, I could go on and on about how God provided throughout those two years of my life. I will keep it short and say that I graduated in December 2019 with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing thanks to His grace and faithfulness.
I celebrated and praised the Lord repeatedly during that time. I spent the following year working in the hospital during the pandemic and I have never been so humbled or so reliant on the Lord. This year, He blessed me with the opportunity to work in public health which led me back to LCA, the place it all began.
Being back at LCA vaccinating the people who poured into me for years was so amazing. I cannot tell you how much joy it brought me to serve them in this way. I realized how much I had missed my LCA family and how the Lord had made a special place for them in my heart that has remained all these years. I am thankful LCA has been a huge part of the story God is writing for me. He is so good, and I am so grateful I get share with everyone what He’s been up to in my life since I left the halls of LCA.
Something I learned through all of this was that it really is okay to not have it all figured out during your senior year of high school. Sometimes you must take it a day at a time even if your life begins to feel like a rollercoaster. I am so thankful to have been so grounded in my faith throughout middle and high school at LCA. Otherwise, I do not know how I would have maneuvered my crazy college and career journey.
