Ahmed

“My motivation to graduate is because when I was in jail, I made a promise to my little brother that I’m going to get it together for my mom and dad, and our little brothers need a better example as an older brother.

Flex helped me a lot since I came here because they give you one class at a time instead of multiple classes, like regular schools. Sometimes, in regular schools, whatever you learn in the first class, you go to the next one and forget what you learned in the last. But here, it’s one day, you do math, the next day, you do science and it helps you just build it piece by piece.

My experience in traditional schools was kind of rough for me. But it was all on me really, but I didn’t connect with the school and the teachers enough. But coming here, you can get your own peace of mind and just you focus more.

When I switched to Flex, all that changed because I just started focusing up on myself. You’re able to get one-on-one with the teachers. Back then, I never thought that I’ll actually even … I never had a thought of even graduating. I didn’t envision it or none of that, but I made it happen. If I could do that, anybody else can, too.

He died at the age of three, really. That’s when I made the promise to him. Because I felt like he was looking down on me and I’m doing all this little stupid stuff. I’m like, nah, I can’t have him looking at me like that. I got to do better.

You surround yourself around smart people, you do get smart. They weren’t lying about that. I just stayed away from people who’s corrupted and things are just getting better. That’s it. If Flex wasn’t here, I don’t know where I would be.”