MACON, Ga. (WMAZ) — Central High School senior Allison Flowers looks back at her younger self, and it wasn't too long before she found her love for school.
"From every young age, I used to be very good at math and also spelling. I began to love school when I started third grade year," Flowers said.
Unlike many of us, her mother never had a problem waking her up for school in the mornings.
"Some days I'd be sick, but my mom would be like, 'well you can stay home,' but I just didn't want to stay home, because I just wanted to be able to say I went school every single day," she said.
Her work ethic shows through her 3.8 grade point average, involvement in academic clubs, working part-time at Chick-fil-A, but most notably, being accepted into 23 colleges.
"At one point I didn't know if I wanted to go to college or not, and just seeing that all of these colleges are accepting me is just a blessing," she said.
She says rejection and not being good enough was her biggest fear of applying to college. They're feelings that stemmed from her past.
"Growing up, I would be bullied, and that also would fear me into actually standing out and put myself out there," Flowers said.
Her grandfather helped her through a lot of it. She says he was her biggest support system. When she was in 11th grade, he passed away.
"It just really hurt me not knowing that he won't be here to see me graduate, and I know how proud he was of me, and I just wanted to give up, but my mom, she told me that that's not what my granddad would have wanted," Flowers said.
Now, she's earned over $400,000 in scholarships, remembering everything her grandfather taught her.
Flowers' college application fees were waived because of her 1150 SAT score.
She's limited her top three choices to Mercer University, Georgia Southern, and Kennesaw State University.
Flowers says she wants to go to school to work towards becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner.
