Track 2: Little Leslie

Intro 

I want to tell you about a girl I used to know

From St. Louis

She was twenty years old

And she had no idea

Who she was going to become

Verse 1:

Little Leslie left home early

Chasing something she couldn’t name

Glamour looked like worth to her

And luxury looked like freedom

High school dropout

With a hunger

That legitimate work

Was too slow to feed

She found a system

Built on other people’s numbers

Told herself nobody’s really hurting

Told herself she deserved it

Told herself this was just

A detour on the way

To the life she was supposed to have

Two years deep

And the Chanel bags were real

But the foundation

Was already crumbling

Underneath her feet

Pre-Chorus:

She didn’t know she was lost

She thought she was just

Finding a faster way

To get somewhere worth going

Don’t we all

At twenty       

Think the shortcuts

Are just smarter roads

Chorus:

Little Leslie

Didn’t know what she was building

Little Leslie

Thought the glamour was the dream

Little Leslie

Running from a life

She hadn’t learned to love yet

Little Leslie

If you could see her now

You wouldn’t recognize

The woman

That girl

Was going to become

Verse 2:

The marshals came on a Tuesday

Hotel lobby

Two men in suits

And she felt it

Before they even spoke

The weight of every choice

Landing all at once

They put the handcuffs on

And something shifted

Not just fear

Something deeper

Like a part of her

Had been waiting

For the running to be over

For over a year she’d been Natalie

Couldn’t remember

The last time someone called her

By her real name

And meant it

Extradition flight

County jails across the country

A marshal leaned down quiet

And said

This isn’t the end of your story

She didn’t believe him

But she needed to hear it anyway

Pre-Chorus:

Marianna Florida

September 19th 1995

She stopped running

Made her bed with military corners

Learned her GED

In a federal prison camp

And somewhere in the structure

Of being required

To show up every day

She found the first version

Of the woman

She was always meant to be

Chorus:

Little Leslie

Didn’t know what she was building

Little Leslie

Thought the glamour was the dream

Little Leslie

Running from a life

She hadn’t learned to love yet

Little Leslie

If you could see her now

You wouldn’t recognize

The woman

That girl

Was going to become

Bridge 

Let me tell you

What happened to that girl

From St. Louis

She got out

And she built it

The right way

Slowly

Legitimately

One honest day at a time

She built companies

She served veterans

Ten thousand of them

Across thirty one locations

She wrote a book

She built a Fellowship

She stopped hiding

The conviction

That she thought

Would disqualify her forever

Became the foundation

Of everything she’d teach

That girl who thought

Her past made her

Unqualified for purpose

Became the Architect

Of Redemption

For every woman

Who thought

The same thing

About themselves

Final Chorus 

Little Leslie

Became the Architect

Little Leslie

Built it from the ashes

Little Leslie

The handcuffs were the beginning

Not the end

Little Leslie

If you could see her now

Standing in her purpose

Unashamed

Unafraid

Finally home

That girl

Became everything

That girl

Was always the blueprint

That girl

Was always

Enough

Outro

If you’re young

And you’re lost

And you think

What you’ve done

Or what’s been done to you

Has disqualified you

From a life worth living

I need you to hear this

Little Leslie

Was twenty years old

In handcuffs

On an airplane

And she became

An Architect of Redemption

So can you

Your past

Is not your disqualification

It’s your blueprint

Start building