Shannon Millard Photojournalist

On the floor of her sister Mary Cassel's home, Betty straightens her hair while babysitting Mary's children on Aug. 16, 2017, in Flint. "Graduating high school has opened my eyes," Betty said. "Now I am doing everything alone, well not alone but on my own. Usually, I would have people to ask questions to, my family and friends, I had them to fall back on but now I am doing things on my own. I am adapting, it is not going to happen overnight."

"Flint has its flaws, the school systems, the poverty rate and murders are at an all-time high," Betty said. "You have to get through the mess and then you can see that there are some things that you can get from Flint that you can't find anywhere else."

Flint Northwestern graduate, Betty Davis, 18, celebrates after receiving her diploma alongside more than 235 other graduates from Flint Community Schools at the annual joint commencement ceremony on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, at Dort Federal Event Center in Flint. More than three months later, she is struggling to make her dream become a reality. To leave her challenging childhood behind, join the military, move to Texas and later attend college to study criminal justice. "A lot of my classmates are all going through the same thing as me this summer. They keep telling me the same things that I have been thinking, 'ah man this is hard, I want to go back to high school, I want to try to start over and make it better for myself,'" Betty said.

Betty chops tomatoes for dinner alongside her cousins as they snack on bananas in their home on the 2000 block of Cadillac Street in Flint on July 2. 

Sitting in a chair outside her home, Mary Cassel, 33, watches her children play basketball in the street as Betty Davis drinks water from a gallon jug on Aug. 15, 2017 in Flint. Cassel shares the home with her mother Laura Daivs, 53, and sister Betty. "I was five when I moved to Flint," Betty said. "Growing up here was hard because we didn't have anything to come to when we moved from Milwaukee in 2002. It was a fresh start. I was in and out of foster care my whole life. I had to hold up a certain type of profile when I got to school but I knew what I was going home to. It was difficult for me because I had to play so many different roles."

Betty teaches her co-ed dance team, Perfect Devine, a move to the song "The Water Dance," by Chris Porter featuring Pitbull at a park near downtown Flint on the corner of West Fifth Street and Church Street.

Betty Davis, 18, lifts up her sweatshirt for Staff Sgt. Keith Palka to measure her waist, hips, and neck. Standing her tallest at 5 feet, 5 inches and weighing 204 pounds, Betty did not meet the physical requirements to join the military. She needs to lose 40 pounds based on the Army body fat calculator to be at 30% body fat. "The military is my way of getting out of Flint. I can't just up and leave. Outside of Flint, I just want to explore life without family, without being comfortable and the Army is kind of my starting point," Betty said.

Claude Monet-Wilson, 20, trains with Betty Davis, 18, as she works out to drop weight to join the Army on the track at Flint Northwestern High School on July 3, 2017, on the city's north side. Claude is in the National Guard and has been Betty's best friend since early in high school. "I already dropped 10 pounds," said Betty, one month into training. "I am on my way. I am doing the military diet as I speak.

Betty, center, is surrounded by her mother, siblings, cousins and nieces and nephews for a family photo. Siblings were visiting Flint from Milwaukee for the Fourth of July. "I can't stand my family sometimes. I love them but I can't stand them. There are a lot of us. It is hard because you never know what to expect when we all meet up because they all have their crazy parts," Betty said. She is the youngest girl out of twelve children. Her mother and father have six children together and each had three before their marriage.

Lea'Monai Cassel, Betty's niece, grabs at the dog tags wrapped around her neck on June 2, 2017, as her family gathers in the front yard in Flint. Betty wears her the dog tags of Claude Monet-Wilson, her best friend who became her boyfriend.

Betty reacts as she learns she scored a 29 on her practice test but did not pass the physical requirements needed to sign up for the Flint Michigan National Guard recruiters office on July 11, 2017.

Betty laughs surrounded by friends and family as music comes blaring out of the speakers set up at her graduation party in a park in downtown Flint.

"I don't have a normal relationship with my mom. My mother put me through so much," said Betty Davis. She was born a crack baby. Her mother, Laura Davis, 53, pictured holding her granddaughter, Lea'Monai Cassel, struggled with drug addiction. "I don't know if she even knows half the stuff I had to do because of her ... (to get the) lights and water turned back on in our house or to put food in the house. I had to do things to make sure my little brothers were living the proper way," Betty said.

"I wanted to be the President of the United States as a kid," Betty said as she looks at photos of her as a child on Aug. 25. "I swear I did. When I saw Obama win, I was in fourth grade and we were watching the news in class. And I was like, 'Oh my god! If he can do it, then I can do it.' So then I was going around like, 'Yeah, I am going to be the President.' Then I just thought about it and I was like, 'I'm not going to be the President, I don't like taking control all the time.'" As Betty reached seventh grade, she changed her mind to becoming a lawyer, which led to her path to study criminology and forensic psychology.

Betty Davis, 18, is still struggling to find the right path for her after high school at Flint Northwestern. "I don't want to become just another statistic of Flint," Betty said.