ep. 1- my testimony

Rianna Serra, 24, shares her journey starting a podcast, Voice Females, where she opens up about her troubled past with an alcoholic father and struggles, including OCD and unhealthy relationships. Joining the Marine Corps, moving to Hawaii, and facing loneliness, Rianna realized she needed to return to God, leading her to leave the military, heal, and grow spiritually. Through faith and community, she found peace, love, and purpose. Rianna's story inspires hope and emphasizes God's transformative power. I am Rianna Serra, I'm 24 years old. I am starting a podcast called Voice Females with Rianna Serra. I don't have a fancy introduction. I don't have a script with me for this episode. This episode is going to be my testimony. So without further ado, I'll get right into it. I was born and raised in Sanford, North Carolina. I grew up in a Christian household. I had a mom and dad who didn't truly have Jesus in their hearts, nor did they have him first in their relationship. My dad was an alcoholic. There was a lot of chaos, a lot of pain. I remember witnessing arguments and fighting. I remember my dad would sell some of our things in the house to get money for alcohol, drugs, you name it. He was in and out of jail. I remember feeling very alone and sad. I remember being in daycare and being in other people's house because my dad wasn't there to take care of us and that left my mom having to work, be the sole provider and try her best to take care of us, but sometimes she had to leave us to the hands of other people. I wish I could say that being at daycare was my saving grace, but I was exposed to things as a kid that would lead to me developing a masturbation issue for lots of years, I didn't overcome that until I was 16 years old. Despite growing up in the household that I did, despite the things that I was going through, I was a pretty good kid. I stayed out of trouble. I did fairly well in school. I stayed away from people who partied and who drank, did drugs. I was this way all throughout elementary, middle, high school. I actually hated getting in trouble. I think that school was a way for me to have some type of control on life, so I strived for perfection. I rewrote notes over and over and over and over and over again until they looked perfect in my eyes. I would stay up late in ninth grade doing homework. It wasn't that deep, but I would soon realize later on in life that everything that I had gone through led to the OCD that I developed, led to controlling, led to the perfectionism that when we had left Sanford, North Carolina to start new, to start fresh away from my dad because my mom and dad finally got a divorce, I would later have to go to therapy and work on these things because my mom didn't know how to help me. I didn't open up to her. I would isolate. And so I started therapy. First, I was very resistant to the therapy, but as I gave in, she helped and I found ways to cope. I learned how to journal, how to talk about the very things that were going on in my head. And I remember feeling relief for the first time. And that would honestly be the first time of many where I would learn how to talk about it, release and expose the very things that I was dealing with. After a little over two years, my family and I moved back to Sanford, North Carolina. During the time period that we were in California, we stayed with my mom's brothers. At one point, we were with one of my uncles, her older brother, and after things didn't really work out so well, we moved in with the other uncle. And I think it all just got to a point of my mom just realizing that it wasn't working out. And she decided that we would go back, back home, that God was calling her to go back home, that he would make the very place where we experienced so much pain and sadness into a place where we would grow and a place where he would make it home for us. She has a song that she felt like God was speaking to her. It's called Home by Phillip. We moved back to Sanford, North Carolina. We are staying with my grandparents at this time. I finished high school with no plan in mind and having not signed up for no scholarships, I decided to choose the military path. I also did love GRTC, so I thought it could be for me. So I enlisted in the Marine Corps because Homegirl was not going to go to any other branch. I had pride and I just wanted to prove to people and honestly, mainly to myself that I could do it. And so I enlisted into the Marine Corps. I left for boot camp the year of 2020 of October and I went through boot camp, got dropped because of me standing up during the moment of truth, revealing that I went to therapy and had counseling. And so they dropped me to just ensure that everything was OK with my mental health, which put me a month back. But it's all good. I got more money during that time. I ended up graduating in March of 2021, and then I went to MCT, MOS school, and then I get a station in Hawaii, out of all places. I began to steer away from the path that I knew was right, the path with God, the very narrow path that is described in the Bible. I experienced a lot of loneliness, a lot of hardships I wasn't expecting at all. It, I mean, coming from a person who was very sheltered and very close with their family, it had a huge effect on me being away from them and being in a whole new environment because the military was my life now. That was my family. I didn't make the best choices. I ended up getting involved with someone who would later want nothing more than just my body. There's more to tell on that later. I would also later find out that he had a full fiancée that I would not know about until much, much later. And because of everything that I had gone through with him, I just began to spiral. I ended up being in places, being around people, partying, clubbing, the drinking that I swore that I would never do. I did. And I got into this relationship that I had no business being in because I was obviously hurt. I was so far from God, at least I felt that way, even though he was right there waiting for me, patiently loving me. But I just couldn't see it because of the pain that I was in. Not to say that every moment was horrible. No, I had really good moments. I had the moments spent with friends, hiking, viewing the different sites, just immersing myself in the culture of Hawaii. I am, to this day, forever grateful for being able to experience all that I did. I just, it just sucks. I could have done without the heartache, minus everything else. I decided to leave the Marine Corps. I finished up my four years and I said goodbye to active duty life. I came back home and I healed and grew and worked on myself and did it all with God. I went back to my first love and I immersed myself in community. I have such an amazing sister who pushed me to church events with her, who brought me to the Bible study that she was in, that was full of women, which I am forever grateful for. To this day, I am still a part of that Bible study and I'm just super thankful for these girls that I get to do life with that pray over me, that encouraged me, that uplift me up. I am in a much better spot now. This year, 2025 has been incredible. There's been downs and ups and healing and stretching and growing and learning so much about myself, going through a deliverance ministry program, learning how to wage war in the spirit, learning how to pray scripture and falling deeper and deeper in love with God, God becoming my everything. And I just want to end on that note. I want to end on the note that I don't think that I was dealt the ideal deck of cards. I would say I don't think that I had the perfect family, the white picket fence, everything that you could ask for. I wasn't spoiled. My family struggled from paycheck to paycheck. I've felt neglected. I felt lonely. I felt abandoned. I've been sad. I've contemplated suicide. I've struggled with a lust and various forms. I know grief. I know heartbreak. But despite all of that, my God is good and He saved me from all that. And today I stand at 24 years old, delivered from all of that. And I'm forever thankful. And if God did it for me, He can do it for you. I don't think that I'm so much better off than I was before. I don't think that I'm in this place because of the amount of knowledge I have. I don't think that I am a better Christian. I just love God with my whole heart, mind, body, and soul. And because of that, I choose to read the Bible. I don't strive anymore. At least I try not to. God helps me. I don't follow rules. I do what I do. I speak the way that I speak because I love God. And I have a burden to spread the gospel, to spread Jesus to people who are lost, people who are hurting. And so that is why I've created this podcast. I want to inspire. I want to motivate. I want to encourage. I want to share my experiences. My stories. I will go deeper and deeper into so many things that I've mentioned here, but I just wanted to give a surface level of a little bit of my testimony because I want you to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel that just because you may be experiencing hardships doesn't mean it's always going to be that way. Yes, I say this now and I am out of the pit that I was in, but that's not to say that there won't be moments where, heck, I just had a few weeks, a few days where I was just going through it again because it's life, there's ups and downs, but when God's your constant, when God is your everything, when He's your first, He gives you that peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding, and it don't matter what's going on because He is your peace, He is your anchor, He's your rock, He's your foundation. And so that is what I want to end on. I am just super thankful because He saved me. He saved me while I was sinning and the love that He has for me is no greater than the love that He had for me when I was messing up and I felt like a screw up and I felt so far from Him. He loved me just as much then, let me be clear, for the one that is struggling to see that God loves them, He loves you just as much now as He will when you are delivered from all of that. Be blessed.