After graduating high school in 1998, Gus attended Kent State University and flunked out after one year. He didn't know what he wanted to do, so he didn't care about his classes. College was just the next step for middle-class white kids.
He went to the University of Akron for a semester in 2003 and to Midlands Tech a couple semesters in 2005 to get his GPA up enough to transfer to USC. He did that and started the physical education program in the Fall of 2007. In case you didn't know, USC has the best physical education program in the country, meaning it's not easy.
We started dating that Fall, so we have been together through most of it. Right after we got married, he would stay up all night working on lesson plans while I slept on the couch beside him. I would wake up occasionally and try to encourage him. He was taking Adderall at the time, but after a really difficult night of staying up late, he decided to stop and come up with a new plan. After talking to one of his professors, we got the idea that I could type his lessons while he dictated. This actually helped him stay focused more than the Adderall (I'm sort of like a drill sergeant).
I have so many stories of his perseverance through college, like his struggle through Biology 244 (he took it three times and ended with a B+) or the time that he thought he was going to fail Dr. Rink's class and ended up with an A.
Even with the low grades from Kent included, Gus ended up with a 3.3 GPA. Twelve years after starting college, he graduated on May 8. I am so proud of him.
I hope that we both remember all those struggles, those late nights, the hard classes, the 10-page lesson plans and praise God for his faithfulness through it all.
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