GREEN COVE SPRINGS – There’s no room in Arriana Foreman’s life for down time and bad days. When schoolwork seems daunting; when the responsibilities that come with being a teenage mother becomes suffocating; when the loss of both parents sometimes creates hollowness, the R.C. Bannerman Learning Center senior quickly focuses across the school’s concrete courtyard to find grounding.

That’s where you’ll find her son, Ah’Vye.

“My birth parents actually passed away, both of them, one a year ago, the other in 2022, from heart attacks,” Arriana said. “I’m also a teen mom and I took a break from school. I did online school, but I decided to come here to finish.”

Bannerman was the perfect option because it specializes in creating an educational environment for non-traditional students with smaller classes, individual teaching and most importantly, daycare.

“I have a kid now, so it’s not just for me,” she said. “I want to be a social worker. I want to go to college and get my master’s so I can become a licensed therapist. People don’t know what I’ve been through. I’ve been through some stuff. But it made me stronger. I didn’t have time to grieve my parents because I was pregnant. If I was sad when they died, my baby would've been sad when he was born.”

Arriana’s smile is infectious. Burdened with so much at such a young age, she decided to find the best in every situation and in everybody.

Ah’Vye’s father didn’t stick around. “But that’s okay, because I don’t have to share,” she said with a smile.

And her parents? “Their heart attacks were because they did drugs and stuff and it eventually caught up to them,” Arriana said.

She didn’t live with her birth parents, but their deaths helped her chart a responsible and principled path into adulthood.

“My dad was on his way to start discovering his life because he was locked up for most of his life, and then he ended up passing on,” Arriana said. “I learned to live life to the fullest because you never know when you're going to die. I also learned to love your kid as much as you can, because growing up, not having them with me made it difficult for me to love myself and to accept love from others.”

Arriana said she quickly dispelled some of the misconceptions of Bannerman.

“I could have finished online, but it would have taken me until 2027,” she said, “but I decided to come here. I feel Bannerman gets a bad rap. I thought if I came back to school, everyone was going to beat me up. I heard it was a school for bad kids, but it’s not who we are.”

It certainly doesn’t fit Arriana’s personality.

“I looked at Bannerman as an opportunity,” she said. “I could be home doing nothing, but that’s not me. You have to move forward and take advantage of your opportunities.”

Because there’s no room for down time and bad days.