18 years ago, Shannell McMillan felt she had no purpose. But in July her purpose was to show 150 youth from under-served communities just how important their lives and impacts are.
Shannell took a long path to where she is today, inspiring purpose in others. Almost two decades ago, she was despondent in her relationships and desire to prove her self-worth through her accomplishments, which never seemed to be enough. She decided to make a change.
“I was going to go downstairs, change my laundry, come back up and kill myself,” she said.
She’d laid out the pills she was going to take, chosen her outfit and thought she’d seen her younger sister asleep in her room, but when she went downstairs, Shannell walked in on a horrific scene.
“When I went downstairs, I found my sister who had just shot herself. That pretty much made up my mind.”
At that point, Shannell decided to follow her sister’s example and reached for the gun.
Inexplicably, she couldn’t even get her finger on the trigger. Not from fear or lack of desire — Shannell simply could not get in reach of the gun. She said something held her back, keeping her from getting anywhere near her sister or in reach of the gun. That’s when one of the most defining moments of her life happened.
“I told God if he wouldn’t let me kill myself, he had to give me a purpose for my life,” Shannell said.
Now, Shannell can tell you that purpose in one breath: to ignite the pursuit of purpose in everyone she meets.
And during the Youth Development Academy at Cal State University Dominguez Hills, she acted that mission out through 150 students. Each one of them came away with a defined purpose, goal and better understanding of themselves from her workshop with the Path4Teens curriculum.
Shannell helping students identify what they want more and less of in their lives
First they identified their own core values and talents. Using those, they created a mission statement to help guide their life and inspire others, whether their focus be education, respect, growth or anything they deem important in their lives. Finally, they mapped out where they want to be in ten years so they can start working toward the goal of being a star athlete, doctor, writer or college graduate.
As Shannell put it, “It focuses them like a laser.”
Whether it’s from sick coincidence or an unconventional sense of humor, Shannell found her purpose is to guide others to their mission without going through the same pain that focused her life. In July at the YDA, she saw her purpose in action.
“It’s a powerful experience for me to see (students) capture their heart and hear it come out of their mouths,” Shannell said.
