COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — As of January, Dashia Wider is a certified Social Studies teacher at Alcorn Middle School in Columbia, first taking part in Richland School District One’s Project R.I.S.E. program. But she couldn’t always envision this teacher’s life that she so loves now, telling ABC Columbia’s Lee Williams, “Today where I’m standing at, it’s nothing but God’s grace and mercy. His hands are all upon me. I was beneath the rock. You know how people say they hit rock bottom? I was beneath the rock.” Having fled her home in Florida to escape an abusive marriage in 2012, Wider lived out of her car with just a few belongings for nearly six months. “It was scary. Felt alone. It was a place that I felt like, I just didn’t know if I was gonna make it the next day,” she says. Eventually, a friend in Columbia found out about her situation, and paid for Wider to have housing and utilities. “She saw much more in me than I saw in myself at that time,” she says. Shortly after, her new neighbors encouraged her to apply for a substitute teaching job at Southeast Middle School where she became friends with Administrative Assistant to the Principal, Delores Goodwin. “She had on some slides and it was getting cold. She said, ‘Ms. Goodwin, those are some beautiful shoes you have on.’ I said, ‘You like these shoes?,’ she said ‘Yes ma’am.’ I said, ‘What size do you wear?’ ‘I said try them on.’ She said, ‘Oh they look so good on my feet.’ I said, ‘They’re yours.’ She said, ‘What are you going to wear home?’ I said, ‘I keep a pair of old slides under my desk girl, don’t worry about that.” “I walked them shoes till the heels fell off. Literally you could see the metal part of the heel. I wore them shoes till it was no more,” says Wider. She went on to hold several administrative positions with the district, and the rest is history — or Social Studies, rather — becoming certified this past January, and finding her purpose. “It’s the kids. They bring out myself. They bring the fullness out of myself. I could be having a rough day, but my children bring it out to me. I want to be able to provide them with joy. Because when students come into the classroom, you don’t know if they ate, if they have lights or running water at home, so when they enter my classroom, they’re gonna get love, and know that Ms. Wider loves them,” she says. Her message to other going through her situation? Hold onto hope. “If you see where I’m at today, you can be there too,” she says. Categories: Local News, News Tags: Alcorn Middle School, Dashia Wider, homelessness, Southeast Middle School