AUBURN – Later this year, Heather Campbell plans to marry her boyfriend of two years who is now in Iraq. Next year, she’ll attend the University of North Carolina to study criminal justice and psychology. Then, she plans to go to law school.

“I want to be a prosecutor,” she said.

The 17-year-old, who graduated Saturday from Edward Little High School, is used to change.

The honor roll student bounced around to four different high schools, beginning in Lewiston. Her parents divorced and she lived with her mother.

Heather acknowledges she took her father’s side and viewed her mother “as the bad person.” That didn’t help their relationship. “We bat heads in every way,” she said.

They didn’t get along to the point that during her sophomore year, the state took custody of her. She lived at a group home in Falmouth and attended Falmouth High School, where she finished her sophomore year. In her junior year, she was moved to a foster home in Durham and attended Lisbon High School.

Then she was placed in a new foster home in Auburn, moving just before her senior year, which she spent at Edward Little.

It was a stressful year, but a happy one, Heather said. “It was fun; at the same time, really hard.”

She focused on school. “I’ve always had A’s and B’s, rarely a C,” Heather said. “School comes really easy to me.”

Despite having to change schools so often, “I just kind of did it,” she said, adding that she relied on herself. “Everybody came and went in little spurts.” Others were there to help when she asked for it, she said. “In the end I was the person standing.”

About two years ago she met her fiancé during a summer event for teens living in group homes. He lived in Bangor. They dated and communicated long-distance.

Their relationship took a turn for the serious last fall. “We’d been texting one night. We had a joke: ‘Love you;’ ‘Love you more.'”

She wrote: “Prove it.”

He wrote, “Ring.”

She wrote, “What? Call me!”

Their wedding is planned for November while he’s on leave. “I don’t want him going back,” she moaned.

She agreed to marry him because “he stole my heart. He’s my best friend. He went through a lot of the same stuff. He’s my other half.”

When they marry, she’ll be barely 18. Heather insisted their life experience has made them mature for their age.

She’s ready for the next part of her life, she said. “I’m so happy to be graduating. Now what?” she said with a smile.

Assistant Principal Robert Bennett described Heather as a student who’s quiet but determined. She’s been able to put aside the emotional baggage and stay focused, he said.

“She’s doing a great job of pulling herself up by her own bootstraps.”

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