Man turns his life around with help from Durham Rescue Mission

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Dressed for success and hard at work, John Turner is exactly where he's always wanted to be.

"We all have a lot of potential. It's just a matter of finding that thing," Turner said.

His path has been full of twists and turns.

"I was broken. I didn't think too highly of myself...I had lost faith in humanity" Turner said.

Turner never got his high school diploma. He went straight into construction. But health issues stopped him from working, and he found himself homeless and lost.

"I just remember one morning I woke up--I woke up in my car in a Walmart parking lot--and I realized I couldn't do it anymore," he said.

He committed to the Victory Program at the Durham Rescue Mission and started his path to healing. He earned his GED and then went straight to Durham Tech for electronic engineering. Just last week he earned a Corning scholarship that pays for his schooling and sets him up with a job right after graduation.

"If you had told me two years ago that this was possible and this was going to be happening, I just would not have believed," he said.

His dreams now a reality as his journey continues, never forgetting those who helped him along the way.

"Everybody that has achieved any great thing in this life hasn't done it by themselves," Turner said.

Turner will graduate next spring. From there he says he'll start working for Corning and hopefully go back to school for his Master's Degree.