It was one day in the early summer of 1987 at Caldwell High, Columbus, Miss., when Jerome Goodman graduated.

Because of his life’s journey, the road to graduation had sent him to many places before arriving to that day. He had seen many people, lived in several foster homes, and throughout the journey, he had sat in many classes.

By the time he reached high school, lapses in attendance, the pressures of adjusting to new people and places, and classroom lessons broken up by time, would place him behind other students.

“I did graduate from high school, but I had a bad start,” Goodman said. “Growing up, I went from foster home to foster home, and I didn’t get the best education. Finally, once in high school, they put me in special ed.”

The day he walked across the stage to receive his diploma was bittersweet, as he was proud to have persevered and finished the course, but deep inside, he knew that he was more than the words written across his diploma.

“I really didn’t want that,” said Goodman. “I wanted a real high school diploma, so I came to GED class to improve my education. I wanted this all my life.”

Without the diploma he had hoped for, Goodman’s journey over the next 20 years following graduation would continue to be one of many challenges. But eventually, it would be the very circumstances of his life, that would challenge him to seek something greater from it.

“Not having my GED hurts me hard. It seems like everyone has accomplished something in life, and by looking at them, I want something, too,” he said. “I almost had my GED in my hands at one time, about two years ago, but I lost it because I ended up dropping out, going from job to job.”

Goodman moved to the area nearly six months ago from New York and has since then been working two jobs to make ends meet. “But I am tired,” he said.

Looking back to his upbringing and considering the path of others like him, he says that encouragement along the way is sometimes the missing factor of motivation in the life of any student.

“It was hard for me growing up to understand why my mama gave me up, but now I realize that it was because she couldn’t take care of me. For some children being placed in foster homes, it affects their education in school, and for some others, it doesn’t,” Goodman said.

“I think a lot of people with potential were put in special education at that time, that shouldn’t have been. I had a lot of people put me down and said that I wouldn’t be nothing, that I couldn’t accomplish nothing, but if a teacher gave me hope and understanding, and told me that I could do better and achieve more, I knew that I could achieve more.”

It would be here one day, in the early spring of this year, that Goodman, 38, would walk into a new stage of his life.

“It was like I gave up and had no hope, and I started praying to God and I finally realized that there is something better for my life,” he said. “I looked in the phone book and saw the GED courses, and I finally reached Val Tech. When I first took the test, I didn’t score the best, but once I got in the program, I buckled down and my scores went up. I’m looking to graduate in December.”

Today, Goodman uses the experiences of his past to push him toward his future.