Trust the Journey

Written By:

Andréa Chew

Parent

Spotsylvania, Virginia

My son's high school journey can be best described as a roller coaster. Sometimes he was up and sometimes he was down. Overall, it was good, bad, fun, stressful, and full of hard work. Unlike my oldest son, who knew from first grade exactly what he wanted to grow up to be and knew exactly what he had to do to achieve his goals, Marcus was a different story. He initially thought he wanted to go to college, but not just any college, it was going to be UNC so he could play basketball. This dream lasted until the beginning of his sophomore year of high school. Everything that Marcus was passionate about seemed to change after my dad died right before his sophomore year. Marcus and my dad, who he lovingly called B-Pop had a really close and strong bond. Marcus had a conversation with me one day after school telling me that he was dropping out of marching band, that he wasn't going to college anymore and he didn't want to play basketball anymore, just baseball. We compromised and he stayed in the marching band and played baseball for the remainder of high school. As a concerned mom, I was really scared of the different changes he was going through as the result of his B-Pop dying. All during his Sophomore and Junior years he did the bare minimum academically and he had some amazing teachers to help him through this tough time. Grief had taken a significant toll on him, however, Marcus seemed to be on track by the beginning of his senior year.

As a senior, Marcus attended a college night fair at the local mall and was able to get information about attending a prestigious trade school in Virginia. We took a trip down to get more familiar with the school. However, Marcus was persuaded to begin working as opposed to starting school. Fortunately, his older brother and his wife were able to find a technical college in Florida, near their home, for Marcus to attend. We took a trip to Florida only two weeks after he graduated from high school to tour and possibly apply.

Marcus was so excited about going to this school, but he had a hard time deciding between Auto Mechanics or Construction. By the time he made a decision and applied, the Auto Mechanics program had a wait list. However, Marcus moved to Florida that August. He was able to get a full time job at a local auto mechanics business which has really confirmed to Marcus that he made the right choice of selecting that field. His job has provided him with the opportunity to have on the job training, better preparing him for his work at school.  I am so proud to say that his first day of class will be August 11, 2020. What a journey this has been for Marcus, and it is only the beginning!