Alysia Magen

The military feels like another lifetime now. Nine years... it's hard to believe how fast life moves.

It feels like just yesterday I was standing in boot camp, getting screamed at, wondering, *"What did I just sign up for?"* Looking back now, I'm so grateful I said yes to something that challenged me. Leaving everything familiar behind and stepping into the uncomfortable shaped me into the woman I am today. Some of the hardest seasons produced the greatest growth.

Serving my country taught me discipline, resilience, sacrifice, and perspective—lessons I'll carry with me forever.

Thank you to every service member, veteran, and military family who has sacrificed so much so the rest of us can live in freedom. And to everyone who calls America home, even with its flaws, never take that freedom for granted. There is truly no place like America, and that freedom was paid for by men and women willing to give everything.

Forever grateful to have served. 🇺🇸

n 1940, Virginia "Ginger" Hislop had a dream.

She was just two courses away from earning her college degree when life took an unexpected turn. She got married, started a family, raised children, and devoted decades to the people she loved. Her education was put on hold—not because she gave up, but because life had other plans.

Years turned into decades.

Most people would have accepted that chapter was over.

She didn't.

At 95 years old, Ginger decided it was finally time to finish what she had started. She enrolled once again, determined to complete the journey she had begun nearly 80 years earlier.

In 2024, at the age of 99, Virginia "Ginger" Hislop walked across the stage and received her college degree from Columbia Southern University.

The dream she had carried for almost eight decades had finally become reality.

Her story is a reminder that it's never too late to chase a goal, learn something new, or rewrite your future.

Sometimes, the only deadline that matters is the one you refuse to give up on. ❤️

In 2024, 16-year-old Landerius DeDe Hayes became homeless. The school district's response was to tell him he could no longer attend Lakota East High School because his mother had moved outside district boundaries. A teenager who had already lost stability at home was now being asked to lose it at school too. Robert Burnside was the principal. He refused. He fought to keep Landerius in class and when district leaders reportedly labeled his advocacy insubordination, he kept fighting anyway. The pressure mounted. The career he had spent decades building was on the line. He resigned rather than abandon the teenager. Then he and his wife Angel made a decision that went further than anyone had asked of them. They took permanent legal custody of Landerius and welcomed him into their home alongside their six children. A family of eight became a family of nine. In May 2026, Landerius DeDe Hayes accepted his high school diploma. Robert Burnside was in the audience. Not as his principal. As his father. The man who had once run the school where Landerius studied was now the man who had made sure he got to finish.