Student Stories: Learning and Struggling Financially
3 MINUTE READ • STUDENT STORIES
As a society, we often assume that graduating from high school is a given. After all, no little kid plans on being a high school dropout, left thinking “Now what?” But for that fantasy to be a reality, a student’s environment both in and out of school needs to be supportive, loving, and stable. Unfortunately, not everyone has that luxury.
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Dennis Sherwood, a former Grad Solutions student, knows that truth all too well. His parents divorced when he was sixteen years old. He and his mother were left scrambling to figure out where their next meal would come from. While educators wrung their hands and spoke about how hungry children will fail to learn, Dennis dropped out of school to work and feed himself.
Dennis worked hourly jobs, scrabbling to make ends meet. He watched his friends graduate on time, and saw the future he imagined for himself slipping by. He knew something had to give. When Dennis was 18, he texted his mother at two in the morning, asking for help in getting back into school and finishing up his high school diploma.
That’s when Dennis enrolled in Graduation Solutions.
This was Dennis’s first step, but it wasn’t his last. He soon learned that the path to his high school graduation was more challenging than he originally thought. He started off so strong, but his initial motivation was heavily impacted by PTSD from childhood trauma, depression, and the day-to-day struggles of being a student and working full time.
In the depths of his depression, thoughts of dropping out of high school again haunted him. When he stopped making progress in his classes, his Grad Solutions mentor reached out to find out what was going on. There was no way his mentor was going to give up on him or his future, so Dennis couldn’t either.
At this time, Dennis read the book Undisputed Truth by Mike Tyson. He was inspired and found new motivation from Tyson’s words and experiences. As Mike Tyson says, “You never lose until you actually give up.” Those words have become a mantra in Dennis’s mind, and help him to stay focused on achieving his goals in life. Dennis continues to study toward his high school diploma, and while his past may have been challenging, his future is nothing short of extraordinary.