kennedy holloman

"My name is Kennedy Holloman. Im from a small town and I grew up in the church with my extended family. My family worked hard so I would never have to want for anything. Being and only child for 16 years, and the eldest Grandchild of 7 there was a lot of pressure placed upon me to be a good student and person so that I can make a good living for myself and to make my family proud. I was introduced to God at a very young age, I was baptized by the age of 6. Even though I didn't understand half the words in the bible, I knew that God should be the center of my life and that all things would work in my favor only through him. Throughout the years growing up I was blessed tremendously, but as life got more complicated I was starting to face the problem of having too much weight on my shoulders. I started to fear failure and disappointing not myself but my family. Somewhere in the mist of doubting myself I forgotten that God would be there for me through my ups and downs. I started to become a person that I wasn't and veering off on a different path. Sneaking out, not listening to what anyone had to tell me, and stopped going to church. When things weren't going my way I began to stress over everything. Not many people know that I've had panic attacks and constantly break out in stress hives, my sensitive skin gave me the perfect excuse to play the stress hives off on. I didn't want people to see me showing any weakness. I got sick more than usual during this time also, which caused me to drop form a size 9 to a 5. Then I got into a wreck that, at the time, We thought would permanently dismember my face.  I truly thought God had forgotten about me during this time in my life. I wanted to blame everyone for the things that were going on and the situations I was in. It wasn't until my freshman year of college while reflecting back on my life with my roommate, that I realized God had not left me, in fact he had been with me the whole time, I overcame each illness, the panic attacks stopped, and the only serious thing from the wreck was a broken nose that didn't need surgery or any type of casting. God had been with me the whole time to make sure I came out of each situation stronger. I got closer to my family and started to get back to my roots, putting full trust in the Lord once again. Now I'm proud to say that I am a sophomore at the University of Arkansas barely making it, but I'm making it."

Age: 19 years old
Attends: University of Arkansas
Ashdown, Arkansas

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