Ginny Burton's story is one of transformation.
From Fox News:
After struggling with drug addiction for most of her life, Burton got clean in 2012. The mom of three graduated from Washington State University with her degree in political science in June.
In May, ahead of the ceremony, Burton, now 48, shared one of her graduation photos alongside a mug shot taken in 2005, during "one of the most intense times" of her addiction, Burton told Fox News, at a time when she "had a tremendous heroin habit" and was "smoking a lot of crack cocaine."
Here are the side-by-side photos. Talk about a difference!
Ginny was introduced to drugs by her mom at age 7 and hooked on cocaine by age 14.
"There were seven of us kids and so our existence was really chaotic," Burton told Fox News. "So I found, in time, that my relationship with drugs actually provided me an escape…My life just sort of unraveled in that way. And I was becoming the exact thing that I did not want to become, which was my mom."
The last year she finished in school was grade six.
She ended up in an abusive relationship and had three children; then, in 2012, she was arrested and spent six months in jail.
The detox and imprisonment forced her to get perspective.
"I recognized that my problem was me," Burton said. "It wasn't what my mom did to me, it wasn't the abuse that I experienced from my husband, but it was the choices that I was making. And so I became really, really committed to figuring me out, to changing the narrative."
Over the last decade, Ginny got into hiking, rock climbing, cycling, and running. She says she shared her now-viral transformation photos to give others hope.
"I want them to see that it doesn't matter how old we are, we can make a new decision at any moment," Burton said. "It doesn't mean that it's not going to be hard."
She added: "I specifically shared those [pictures] for that purpose, to show the contrast and to say I don't care where you're from, what you've done, what your life looks like and how old you are. We can do this."
