Recently, Leah Remini has shown that she has a lot to celebrate and be thankful for, including having just finished her first set of final exams in her post-secondary career at New York University.
The 51-year-old King of Queens actress marked the occasion in a Twitter post, which also discussed the fact that she previously only had “an 8th grade education.”
RELATED STORIES
Her Twitter post also mentions how she’d spent “most of [her] life in a cult.”
The tweet, which was posted Saturday May 7, marks the end of her very fist semester as a student at NYU. But she also mentions how she’d spent much of her life as part of a cult.
The “cult” that she mentions, is the church of Scientology.
PopCulture reports that, since her 2013 departure of the church, Remini has been critical of its practices, oftentimes referring to it as a cult who “didn’t value an education.”
She’s, in fact, been very open about her time as a Scientologist.
She’s written a memoir and made a docu-series about her upbringing in the Church called Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath . Growing up in Scientology, she’d been taken out of school at age 13.
Her acceptance into NYU further severs her ties to Scientology.
Last spring, Remini posted a screenshot of her college acceptance letter, accompanied by a lengthy post expressing her excitement.
“This is one of the last chunks of my life that I am taking back for myself from Scientology,” she wrote.
“It took a lot for me to take this step…”
“…for fear that I was not smart enough, not worthy enough, not able to do the work that will be required, my age….” she continues in the post.
“I did it anyway with a lot of encouragement from a very special person in my life.”
“I am ready to do the work… I am excited to start on my journey. It’s just never too late is it?”
In an interview with People earlier this year, Remini opened up about her experiences as a student.
“It’s been difficult when I’m working because sometimes I’ll work from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. and then have to come home and read chapters and do a quiz when my brain is shutting down,” she told People.
Despite the difficulties, it’s been quite rewarding.
“But I’m doing it, and I am proud of myself. With my degree, I might eventually want to go into politics, but who knows? I would like to be of some kind of public service.”
This is exactly how she should be feeling!
Whether you start post-secondary education at 18 or you don’t get to it until you’re in your 50s, it’s going to be exciting, challenging, stressful, and rewarding all at the same time.
Remini definitely has a lot to be proud of.
With one year of her associate’s degree in liberal arts down, she’s one step closer to achieving the level of education she’d dreamed about as a child and as an adult.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
