Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. My name is Michael Smith. I'm a 2019 graduate of Garby High School. I moved down from Atlanta five years ago with my aunt and uncle, and so I can have a better life in Tennessee. At that point in time in my life, that's when my mom shoes very sick. She had very high blood pressure, and she was going to the hospital like every other week. And our financial status wasn't the best. I wasn't the best student. I had like all these and else. We had talked to the principal and they had a transcript of my grades, and they told me that if I don't put these grades up, I will not be moving till the next grade. And so then I was like, that's not going to happen. I'm going to move to the ninth grade. I joined a Michelin Lattice summer going into my ninth grade year. You need to require a GPA to get in. Like you need a 2.5 to get in. I believe I had like a 2.7 when I first got in. Now I have a 3.4. I came here knowing nobody. And then when I joined, you know, I gained like 21 new brothers. People who can help me out. People who I still hang out with today. You know, and that was five years ago. You know, they're like my best friends now. My mom, I just want to make her proud. I'll be a fresh generation college student. That's something that really drives me. My brothers did not the best at school. And I just want to make her proud for me going to school. And she was very proud that I got accepted in the family. I would become a mechanical engineer. I researched what they did. And like it just, it just interest me. I always want to be an engineer. Just stay focused. You know, don't give up. There's always another way you can always ask for help from anybody. I tried to do everything on my own, but then I had to realize, you know, I had people that would really focus their time to help me. So just ask anybody for help. There's always somebody out there. I'm Michael Smith and I'm a 2019 graduate from graduate school. You're listening to voices that inspire.