'I can chase my dreams': Teen who was adopted after pleading for a family graduates from high school
Davion Only-Going credited his adopted family for motivating him to succeed.
In his own words, Davion Only-Going, the foster teen who was adopted by his caseworker after asking a Florida congregation for a family, has "made it through."
"I am in a good position right now and I can chase my dreams like I wanted to," he told ABC News Thursday. "I had the drive -- and he [God] knew I had the drive -- and he wanted me to be successful so he was like, '[I] am not going to put you through any more struggle.'"
On Thursday, with his adopted family in attendance, Only-Going, 20, graduated from high school and was awarded a scholarship. He said he had a job and planned to attend a technical school so he could become a chef.
"I'm not done growing. I still have room to grow. I haven't even lived my life yet," he said. "I still have work to do before I can say, 'I was a success story.'"
But for many, including his adoptive mother, Connie Going, Only-Going's journey is already a success.
"It is an amazing story. He's an amazing human being," Going told ABC News. "I mean, he's graduating from high school. Now, he can take the next step. ... I'm excited to see where he's going to go and what he's going to do."
Only-Going caught the world's attention in 2013, when he made a public plea in front of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, for a family. The teenager had been in foster care his entire life.
In the months before he made the plea, he'd learned his birth mother's name but had found out that she had died.
In 2015, he was formally adopted by Going and gained two sisters and a brother. It had been a long road for both Only-Going and Going, who was his caseworker in 2013.
"Seventeen years of foster care is not easy," Going said Thursday. "We talk and talk and we talk until it's done."
Only-Going credited the love of his family with motivating him to persevere and ultimately finish school.
"That's why I try my hardest, every day, 'cause I know they're here. They're going to help me and I don't want to waste their help, in a sense," he said. "Back then, if I would have aged out, I probably wouldn't have had these opportunities. I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to go to school. I probably would have dropped out of high school. Instead of everything going right, it could've went straight left. ... God has a plan for everybody and he guided me through it."
