She’s just 28, yet so much has happened in the last dozen years that Marrissa Hellesen’s life reads more like a suspense novel. Hellesen’s story includes her leaving school in the eighth grade, earning a GED when homeschooling didn’t work out, and then nearly failing in college. The main theme in her life, though, is perseverance. She refused to give up, and she paid attention to the lessons life was teaching her along the way.