THOMASVILLE — Vashti kids are not bad. They are broken.

“They are malnourished, whether phyically, emotionally or spiritually. They haven’t been nurtured,” explained Susan O’Neal, The Vashti Center’s director of fundraising.

They are, more often than not, brought to the tranquil 48-acre campus by circumstances completely out of their control.

One of these kids, is a beautiful 17-year-old girl. To protect her identity, she will be called Olivia.

Olivia has been at Vashti for about a year. She came when her aunt got sick and could no longer care for her.

Thomasville’s Vashti Center, created in 1903, was once a finishing school for girls. Today, it is a non-profit, faith-based ministry that provides residential and community mental health services for troubled children and their families. Vashti serves the counties of Thomas, Brooks, Colquitt, Decatur, Grady and Mitchell.

“The Vashti Center is a safe haven for kids in transition,” said O’Neal.

That transition was difficult for Olivia at first.

“For the first three weeks, I thought it was the end of the world. I balled by eyes out,” Olivia said candidly, “but then I got the swing of it. I thought ‘I can do this.’”

She said the cottage where she lives is a “blessing,”

“I have my own room,” she said with a smile. “I’ve never had my own room before. Not only that, I have my own closet and sink. It’s just beautiful.

“We have three meals a day, three snacks. I’ve gained weight.”

Olivia offered advice to anyone new to Vashti.

“Leave your past where it’s at. It will help you develop quicker as a person. It will help you work with people who are here to help,” she said. “If you come draggin’ in what others have done to you, thinking it’s going to happen to you here …that’s just not true.

“These people love us. You’re going to be loved. It’s a big family…a huge family… and it’s wonderful.”

She said she has learned to “play it smart, make mistakes and learn from it. Keep pushing”

“Don’t let the past dictate the future. I’m going to be better than what people think I’m going to be. I’m going to do what I have to do to get where I want to go,” she said with a proud lift of her chin.

She said she is thankful she got to remain at the local high school she attends. She said Vashti provides tutoring and it’s helped improve her grades.

“That’s important because I want to be a lawyer,” she said confidently.

Like most high school students her age, she’s thinking about college. She recently visited one she really liked.

Olivia is very active in chorus at her school.

“I could swear I’m Beyonce,” she said with a flip of her long hair.

She said she loves her chorus teacher because “He teaches not just about singing. He teaches about life.”

She said he and her therapy sessions have helped her cope with a lot of things.

With eloquence and wisdom beyond her years, she explained, “While you are still walking this earth with a beating heart, you have some learning to do … some growing that needs to be done.”

She continued “I have learned to respect people … people with different personalities and experience. Sometimes they’ll make you upset. Be humble. Take everything with grace.

“People have always put limitations on (what they think I can do.) But look at me,” she said while spreading her arms and lifting her chin again. “I’m doing good. I love the person I have become since being here. I feel happier and healthier. I will never let anything get in my way. To those who say I can’t do it, I’m gonna show them that I can.”  

Circumstance may have brought Olivia to Vashti, but it is intended that circumstance will never get the better of her again.

O’Neal said that’s the goal of Vashti — to return kids back to independence with the tools they need to succeed.

“We build a resiliency in them so that when they go back, either to their homes or foster care, they don’t return to old patterns of behavior but have inward strength and inner guidance to make good decisions,” she said.

They are broken no more.