In a startling revelation, the Washington Post highlighted a staggering influx of 74 million pain pills in Norton and three nearby counties in Southwest Virginia over seven years. This equates to an astonishing 106 pills per resident each year, a statistic that underscores the devastating impact of the opioid crisis on the Appalachian region’s communities and economy.
Sarah King, a University of Virginia student, is actively contributing to efforts aimed at assisting residents in their journey towards recovery and employment in these affected areas.
“Recovery is economic development,” King emphasized. “When we invest in recovery and in our communities, folks are able to meaningfully contribute to society.”
Her insights are born from personal experience.
With a commendable 3.9 GPA, King is set to graduate in May with a master’s degree from UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Her approach to recovery and community development is informed by her own life story, one marked by struggle and redemption.
‘Help me.’
King’s life reached a critical juncture when she found herself in a bleak Richmond apartment, grappling with a sense of purposelessness and substance dependency.
“I had no purpose. I had no identity left,” she confessed. “I was completely substance dependent, and I just, I really wanted to die. I didn’t have any fight left in me.”
As she lay there, she questioned her future: “Is this it? This can’t be it. I was just pleading: ‘Help me.’”
During her high school years in Northern Virginia, King was not a conventional student. Her passion for learning was overshadowed by truancy and her association with an older crowd.
Despite these challenges, she made it to Virginia Commonwealth University, where her love for storytelling flourished, particularly through her work with the student newspaper, the Commonwealth Times.
Through a creative-writing project, she started visiting Richmond City Jail to help inmates share their stories. This led to a relationship with a former inmate, a decision that would dramatically alter her life.
At 19, she began dating a 36-year-old ex-inmate.
Alarm Bells
Concerns about the relationship were voiced by many, including professors who deemed it “unacceptable.”
“It speaks to a little bit of my nature at the time,” King remarked. “I was pretty smart, but also impulsive. I’d been partying and was exposed to all kinds of things growing up, running with an older crowd.”
Despite warnings, she believed they “didn’t apply to me.” The relationship was “certainly risky, but I liked to take risks.”
Over the next three years, the relationship justified the warnings. Together, they used and sold drugs, accumulating arrests, including federal drug charges. In one incident, her boyfriend broke her nose during an argument.
Her academic performance declined, with her sole engagement remaining with the school newspaper. In 2016, she joined a group of college correspondents invited to the White House, dreaming of writing for the Washington Post one day.
While VCU staff helped her graduate, her professional life seemed promising as she joined Richmond Magazine, earning the Virginia Press Association’s “Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year” in 2018. However, her personal life remained troubled.
“I never showed up to work drunk or high,” she noted, “until I did. That was a cliff, and I fell over it.”
An Intervention
During the day, she relied on increasing doses of amphetamines. At night, she used drugs and alcohol to stabilize. “I closed the bars almost every night,” she mentioned.
Eventually, she was dismissed from her job at the magazine. Feeling isolated, she began making incoherent calls to her reporting contacts, including high-profile officials. This was her state when she found herself alone, pleading for help in that Richmond apartment.
Remarkably, someone responded.
“I kid you not, within 72 hours there had been an intervention,” she shared. “I was on a plane to California to get treatment.”
‘I didn’t have anything to lose by applying.’
After gaining sobriety, she returned to Richmond and engaged in jobs assisting people with similar histories. Her colleagues, many with master’s degrees, encouraged her to pursue further education, suggesting UVA as an option.
With her history, this seemed unlikely. Nonetheless, she visited the Batten School, feeling a connection with its mission and values.
“I felt this synergy with Batten, the mission, the values and the community,” she stated. “They didn’t require standardized testing, and there was no application fee. I didn’t have anything to lose by applying, so I did.”
She needed to address her academic inconsistencies in a letter to Batten.
“I am writing to address my academic record, which is clearly marred with aberrant grades after my first three undergraduate semesters,” she wrote. She candidly discussed her past addictions and abusive relationship, which led to emergency room visits and a federal courtroom as a cooperating witness.
Batten also required details of her arrests, prompting her to meticulously check Richmond area court records.
“If I am accepted, they know what they are getting,” she explained. “If I’m denied, that’s OK. I gave it what I had.”
The Batten School took a chance on her, offering a scholarship.
This decision has proven successful. King overcame challenges, maintained near-perfect grades, and received a Tadler Fellowship for her work in Southwest Virginia.
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