Against All Odds: A Woman's Journey from Addiction to Academic Achievement

Lizette Rodriguez, 35, is graduating from Long Beach State this Spring with a bachelor’s in social work and will be working towards getting a master’s in the same feild. Photo Credit: Emily Urias

Submitting her application to pursue a master’s degree in social work, Lizette Rodriguez, 35, a senior at California State University, Long Beach, defied society's expectations. Four years ago, Rodriguez was released from prison after serving one and a half years for possession of drugs.

She is now expected to graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in social work.

“I couldn’t even visualize this,” Rodriguez said.

In 2003, at 13, she was arrested for the first time for stealing and was placed on probation.

That summer, while waiting in line for the bathroom at a high school house party, Rodriguez wondered where her sister had gone. When she opened the bathroom door, she saw her sister with a group of friends using meth. Rodriguez’s sister urged her to leave, but she felt the need to impress her sister and friends, to act “tough.”

That night in the bathroom, Rodriguez sparked a relationship with an addiction that would last over 15 years.

“I remember I continued to try to consume it, even when there was no more left in the pipe,” Rodriguez said. “Now, reflecting back, I’m like that was my addiction kicking in, when I was like, ‘I want more of this.’”

From that point, Rodriguez’s life would constantly consist of getting high. No matter who had it or where it was, Rodriguez wanted to consume it.

Although she was never involved, Rodriguez would often associate herself with gang members. This led her to drop out of school and get into constant trouble. At 14, she was placed in jail for the first time for a probation violation.

“I was there and I was so scared. I cried every day and I was there for two weeks. They released me and I swore I was never gonna go back,” Rodriguez said. “Two weeks later, I was back.”

At 16, Rodriguez was introduced to heroin and was instantly hooked on the feeling, expressing that “the high I got from heroin was different than it was to meth.”

“I knew I wanted to stop using drugs; I almost felt it was my lifestyle,” Rodriguez said.

Jose Francisco Rodriguez, Rodriguez’s father, recalls being frustrated at seeing both his daughters go down “troubled paths.” Though he was angry with his daughters, he would regularly visit them while they were in prison, giving them money for food or anything else they needed.

Her father reflected on the past and said that he believed his daughters would retaliate against him and his wife because he didn’t know how to approach the situation.

“I think since we are not professionals, we did not know how to tell them other than screaming and scolding,” Jose Francisco Rodriguez said. “We never sat down as loving patient parents.”

Growing up, Rodriguez remembers her home as being a loving environment. She has one older sister, and her parents were immigrants from Mexico who worked hard to provide them with everything they needed.

Wiping the tears from her face, Rodriguez reflected on the pain she believed she had caused her parents, as they “did not deserve it.”

In 2018, at 28, Rodriguez decided it was finally time for a change after being sentenced to three additional years in prison and classified as a dangerous inmate, though she was never charged with any violent crimes.

After hearing how long her inmate had been in prison, Rodriguez was frightened and knew she needed to change. Shortly after this decision, Rodriguez joined the Conservation Fire Camp Program, a program that helps incarcerated inmates reduce their time by being trained to fight fires, under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

This led to Rodriguez only serving half the time she was originally sentenced. After completing her sentence of one and a half years in prison and fighting fires for two years in Fallbrook, California, Rodriguez was released in February 2020.

Dario Jimenez, Rodriguez’s fiancé, has known her since 2015 through mutual acquaintances. Both former addicts, the couple has turned their lives around and has been engaged for almost three years.

Jimenez said he is still in disbelief and cannot believe how their lives have changed.

“She has conquered so many demons in her life,” Jimenez said. “Words are not enough to express how much I am proud of her.”

Rodriguez graduated from Santa Ana College in 2021 with an associate’s degree in sociology and community social service, earning departmental honors. She is set to graduate from CSULB in spring 2025 with her bachelor’s degree in social work.

Awaiting her graduation, Rodriguez begins the next step in her education and recovery as she joins the master's program in social work at CSULB.