Isabell Akers is a junior who came to Grand View this spring after transferring from Ellsworth Community College. She reflected on one of her greatest influences, her father, who served for most of Akers’ life in the armed forces, and some hardships in her life that followed.

“When I was growing up, my dad was in the National Guard, so he would get deployed often. I remember in, like, 5th grade he was deployed over to Kosovo, which is a smaller country; it actually used to be a part of Serbia. It won its independence when he was over there serving in 2007. He was gone for a year. That was a big part of who I am today because I didn’t have him for that long. He was going to get deployed again my 8th-grade year, which I think was in like 2010, except he ended up having kidney problems. His kidneys were failing, so he couldn’t go overseas to Afghanistan. He got a kidney transplant that next year from my uncle. A lot of people would say that’s a really big (struggle) in life and that it’s really hard for them to go through, but I think because I had my family and my church around me that I had support.

“Because my dad was gone most of my childhood, I went through this rebellious stage, and I ended up dating this guy. He told me he didn’t have a girlfriend. I was 17 at that time and was stupid, young and foolish, so I believed him. He lived with his child’s mother — well, mom-to-be. She was pregnant, and she was due in September. So we started dating. He kind of played me for a year-and-a-half and would steal my debit card and take out a couple of hundred bucks every night (He) ended up draining my bank account $7,000. I would buy stuff for his daughter; he never worked. He would either quit or get fired. So he would steal my money because he didn’t have any to provide to his child. s a lot of why I am who I am right now I guess because he was so interesting. He was very manipulative.

“I learned a lot from all of this. I finally learned how to trust people and how to handle different situations. I got to be a part of his daughter’s life in her first year. I was happy I was there for her because I didn’t know who else would (be). The mother could barely be around because she worked so much. So I’m happy I was there to help but not happy I had to go through all of that.”