Tough love pays off

There are many kinds of love.

There’s the kind written about in romance novels and portrayed on the movie screen and the kind hallmarked in family paintings and holiday celebrations. And then there’s the kind that’s tough — that pushes forward, no matter the challenges or circumstances.

That’s the kind of love that pushed Marco Johnson to pursue a goal that, at one time, he thought he’d never attain: finally getting his high school equivalency diploma.

“For so long, I really regretted it,” Johnson said of dropping out of Jess Lanier High School, now Bessemer City High School, at age 17. “It was always a burden. It was something that I never finished.”

Demarcos “Marco” Johnson, a custodial staff member at Pizitz Middle School, grew up in Bessemer with four other siblings, but his adolescence was far from easy.

Johnson said he dropped out when he was a junior, about a year after his mother died.

“Before she passed, I told her I would be the one to graduate, and I didn’t,” he said.

He said his sister had made it to the 12th grade, but she was critically injured and paralyzed in an accident, preventing her from finishing. His three brothers also dropped out because of run-ins with the law and other circumstances.

When Johnson was in high school, Alabama students were required to wait until at least their sophomore year to take the state exit exam, a requirement for graduation that was removed in 2013.

“There was always so much hype around it,” he said.

Like all 10th-grade students, he said, he was anxious to take the exam to see where he stood to graduate one day. The night before, he said, he could hardly sleep. He made sure he put his school shirt in the wash so he would be crisp and professional to take the test.

The morning of the exam, as he was taking his shirt out of the dryer to get ready for school, police knocked on the door, bringing the news about his mother.

Though he said he tried to go to school and take the exam, the impact of his mother’s death was more than he could handle.

“At 16 I thought I was a pretty sharp young man, but looking back on it, I was pretty inexperienced in a lot of areas, and dealing with that was one of them,” he said.

Johnson said he stayed in school long enough to attempt to take the exit exam the next year, but he eventually lost motivation.

“You kind of sink into your own world, so it took some time climbing up out of that and wanting to grow again,” he said.

During the next nine years, Johnson said he tried multiple times to pick his education back up, but that often, life would get in the way. 

Then, he came to Pizitz.

“Everybody took an instant liking to him, because he’s just got a huge personality,” Pizitz Vice Principal Tom Callahan said.

In the early summer of 2015, Callahan said the school found itself needing a custodial substitute, a need that can often be difficult to fill.

Through the school’s substitute supplier, Kelly Services, Callahan said Johnson came in and got to work, and after a couple months as a sub, the school offered him a position as a 12-month employee.

When he came on staff, Johnson said he began to form relationships with the teachers in the area where he would clean rooms and do maintenance.

“We kind of connected,” he said. “I was open with them, and I told them it was something I was really looking forward to getting back to pursuing.”

He said that not only did the teachers he grew close to help him by offering a little tutoring or computer use, but also by keeping him accountable and checking in on his progress.

After losing his mom, he said that even though he has his sister and loving grandmother, there was always a void for that motherly figure, and that he thinks he gained some of that support when he got to know the teachers.

“It’s things like that that kept me in a progressive state of mind,” he said.

Kathy Rogers, who teaches German and coding at Pizitz, is one of those teachers with whom Johnson has formed a relationship. She said that getting to know Johnson and his story, and helping him along the way, has not just enriched her life as a teacher — she has gained a friend.

“To say that I am proud to know him is an understatement,” she said.

And everyone at Pizitz, it seems, shares Rogers’ sentiment.

“No job is beneath him,” Callahan said, noting that being a custodial staff member is not the most glamorous position, but that Johnson puts just as much of himself into the work as anyone else at the school.

And that, Callahan said, has value that is hard to express.

“Every person who works in this school is a teacher in my eyes,” he said. “Whether they are serving French fries or cleaning a classroom or holding a megaphone or standing in front of 30 kids.”

And Johnson’s kind spirit, as well as his commitment to getting his GED, is something Callahan thinks speaks volumes to those at Pizitz about the importance of character and hard work.

“It serves as an example to kids and adults alike that no object can’t be overcome, no obstacles can’t be overcome, and some things in life, a lot of things in life, you really have to work hard for. And he has,” Callahan said.

But that doesn’t mean Johnson is at the end of his journey.

Johnson said that, although he has to pinch himself that he actually has his diploma, he wants to continue to pursue his education, and is looking into possibly taking a few college courses.

Callahan said he has tried to remind Johnson that what he has accomplished is major and should be celebrated, but he added he is helping him consider his higher education options. But Johnson said he also has one more goal: to finally purchase a headstone for his mother’s grave.

“We really couldn’t afford to bury her, let alone get her a headstone,” he said, and said that this gesture and his diploma are things he would really like to accomplish this year.

Looking back on his journey, Johnson said he sees two major things he would stress to anyone looking to accomplish a goal or feeling discouraged: Be committed, and tell a friend.

“The No. 1 thing I would say is, making sure you’re committed,” he said. “Not just committed enough to start something, but enough to pick yourself up each day and make it happen”.

And to keep yourself accountable, he said, finding someone to walk alongside your journey is equally important.

“If you value the way you carry yourself or the way you see yourself, then accountability is everything,” he said. You don’t need to broadcast it to the world, but find someone.

It’s that support, he said, that he is so appreciative of.

“My situation was a lot different, being that I had so much support,” he said, and thanked not only the teachers, but the principals and counselor at Pizitz, as well.

“He’s got a lot of people rooting for him and encouraging him,” Callahan said.

As if the family dynamic at the school needed proof, in early December, just days after Johnson got his diploma, the teachers threw him a surprise graduation ceremony, complete with cap and gown, “Pomp and Circumstance” and a visit from Mayor Ashley Curry, which Johnson said was especially exciting.

“He needs to be honored for the work that he did,” Callahan said. “He had folks encouraging him, no doubt, but this is something that he did.”