Ny’Shelby Williamson joined the Army for many reasons — duty, ambition, legacy — but at the heart of it was her best friend, Damien. His belief in her had always been steady, a not-so-quiet insistence that she was meant for more than the life she kept settling into. When Damien died, the world shifted. Ny’Shelby was 26, standing at the edge of a future she hadn’t yet claimed, replaying the conversations where he urged her to chase the Army career she’d only talked about in pieces.
In the blur of grief that followed, her friend’s voice cut through clear, familiar, and impossible to ignore. Joining the Army was no longer just a dream they had spoken about; it became the promise she felt compelled to keep. His confidence in her became the spark that finally ignited her own.
Today, she is a thriving service member and a student at the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC), where she is pursuing another goal: her education.
Though her journey wasn’t linear, she has carved a unique path to where she is today. To understand how far Ny’Shelby has come, you must first see where she has been.
Roots in Motion
Ny’Shelby’s path to service began long before she ever put on a uniform. As an Army kid, she grew up watching her father deploy on missions, tugging on the sleeves of his uniforms during dress-up games in stations from Hawaii and Germany to Colorado. When her mother enlisted too, Ny’Shelby was about 10 years old, and her life shifted again. She moved to Augusta, Georgia, living with cousins while both parents were on assignment. Ny’Shelby tried her best to imagine a future that might have followed the more traditional script her parents hoped for: high school, college, stability. She even tried to pursue a career in radio journalism, but after failing out her freshman year, she left school unphased.
And that’s when Damien’s voice found her. They’d met in middle school — her first boyfriend, she mused, despite house rules that strictly forbade male friends, let alone anything more. He had a way of seeing potential in her she couldn’t yet recognize, Ny’Shelby recalled. As they got older, life pulled them in different directions. Damien left for college, drifted, struggled, and when he eventually returned home, Ny’Shelby gave him the same tough love he’d always given her.
“I fussed at him,” she said with a smile. “Like, ‘You're better than this. How are you going to get on me about keeping my head in the books when you're out here goofing off?’ And he just looked at me and said, ‘Well, I can do that. You can’t. You’re the bookworm.’”
In the years after high school, Ny’Shelby tried to follow the path Damien always pushed her toward. She enrolled in technical school and picked up shifts at Macy’s to cover tuition, gradually piecing together a life that felt like forward motion. When Damien confided that he was becoming a father, she pushed him right back into the classroom, reminding him of the same truth he never stopped telling her: they were capable of more.
From Heartbreak to Action
Their 20s were full of long nights and loud music — “I was partying Sunday through Sunday,” she admitted with a laugh — an overdue rebellion for someone raised under strict rules about being home before the streetlights flickered on. Through it all, they moved as a pair.
“We were like two peas in a pod,” she recalls. “Where you saw him, you saw me.”
But Damien was also the one person Ny’Shelby felt she could finally tell the truth to — she wanted to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the military. He never dismissed the dream. Instead, he widened the world for her:
“The world is so much bigger than Augusta.”
“Follow your dreams instead of listening to everybody else.”
“You’re so much better than this life. Get your act together. Get your life on track.”
Those words echoed in her mind the last night she ever spent with him. On a late night in 2011, they went out together as usual, unaware of what the morning would bring. When Ny’Shelby woke to devastating news from her mother, everything — grief, shock, love, regret — collapsed into a single painful moment.
At his funeral, Damien’s mother pulled her close and repeated the same message her son had carried for years. Hearing it from her felt like a final push, a hand on her back guiding her forward.
“You know what? Let me go get my life together,” Ny’Shelby remembered thinking. “His funeral was on a Wednesday. That Thursday, I walked into the Army center and signed the papers.”
Serving Others, Serving Herself
In 2016, years into her Army career as a Supply Specialist in Logistics, Ny’Shelby began her Bachelor of Arts in Operations Management & Analysis at UAGC.
“I never knew logistics existed until I had to choose my job for the Army,” she says. “I asked the recruiter to place me in a job that would pay well outside the Army. Logistics fascinated me with the many systems we use, the way we obtain parts and supplies, and overall, the complete process of the logistical world.”
With Damien’s words and memory always in the back of her mind, she quickly discovered how much she valued the university’s flexibility and support.
“If I need to pause my classes, they let me do that,” she explains. “If my TA has run out and I need to use my GI Bill, they let me do that. If I need to pay out of pocket, they let me do that… I’m not left to figure it out on my own. I can send one email, and someone answers the next morning: ‘No worries, relax, we’ve got this, we can help you.’”
During her studies, Ny’Shelby took on a new role in the Army as a Career Counselor, all while progressing toward becoming the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree, a feat she doesn’t take lightly.
“This has helped me see that I should never settle in life,” she says. “I’m not going to settle just because someone told me I can’t do it or said it’s not possible. I’m going to go after everything I want to do. Even if I don’t enjoy it long-term, I’ll give it a shot — learn, grow, and move on to the next challenge. No one can stop me from doing that.”
Carrying the Promise
Ny’Shelby sees the value of online learning firsthand. While she has considered the traditional college experience, she knows it isn’t realistic for her.
“I don't have the mental fortitude right now, the mental bandwidth to sit in someone's class,” she acknowledges. “Online classes allow you to stay on the move. I'm always on the move.””
As a Career Counselor, she recommends online programs to everyone who comes through her office, challenging excuses that hold people back. “You’ve got a laptop, right? A cell phone, right? You’re scrolling on that cell phone late at night … So why not go to school?” she advises.
Damien’s voice never left Ny’Shelby. It became the quiet engine behind every decision, every challenge she faced, and every milestone she reached. His belief in her potential — echoed from middle school through the night of his passing — was the spark that pushed her to join the Army, pursue her education, and redefine what was possible for her life.
“My academic path has not been easy,” she admits. “I completed classes during deployments, field exercises, and heavy training schedules. But through perseverance, communication, and the support of the UAGC military-friendly environment, I learned that no dream is too big, and no timing is too late. I am now preparing to graduate as both a senior Army leader and the first in my family to earn a degree in my family’s legacy of service.”
Through it all, Ny’Shelby has discovered that serving others has been a path to serving herself. Whether guiding soldiers as a Career Counselor, pushing through the rigors of online coursework, or showing others that obstacles can be overcome, she embodies the principal Damien instilled in her: life is bigger than the limits others place on you.