My Boy, Matthew...

I woke up Saturday morning very tired. I mean exhausted. I had spent Friday night running around the stage at The Warehouse Theatre, slamming doors, climbing into chests, repelling down fire escapes and basically sweating off pounds by the second, during our opening night of “The Three Cuckolds.” So, needless to say, when my alarm went off on Saturday morning at 7:30AM, I was not ready to jump out of bed. I hit snooze a couple of times, before I finally poured myself out of bed and hopped into the shower.

I say all this, because I need to explain why I was late. I was late for “Opening Doors to Success Day” at Greenville High School. “Opening Doors to Success” is a program of Graduate Greenville, an organization in our community dedicated to increasing the graduation rate in Greenville County and providing every student with the opportunity to learn. “Opening Doors” is just one piece of the entire organization where community citizens meet on the first Saturday after the school year starts and knock on doors of those students that decided not to come back. This is an effort to show them that the community cares about them and desperately wants them to succeed. I participated in this program last year and it was wonderful. So, I was happy to do it again this year.

But, I wasn’t prepared to be so worn out on Saturday morning. So, the program started at 9. Everyone gathers at the school (Greer, Greenville and Berea were the participating schools this year) and has breakfast and organizes themselves into teams. So, I show up at 9:25. I immediately have people coming up to me saying, “Oh, there you are Brock. We were wondering if you were going to show up”. Russell even came up to me and asked if I owned a watch. I could tell he was joking, but nonetheless.

Well, I found my team and we got organized. Now, remember when I said before how tired I was? Well, that exhaustion immediately dissipated when I met my team. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a very energetic, enthusiastic and successful team. Stephanie, Denise and Meg were ready to roll when I got there. They had already determined that we were going to bring everyone back to school. There was never a question in their minds as to whether or not we would succeed. I tell you, if I had people like these three ladies around me all day, I would be one productive, positive person.

So, we set out on our quest. Our first house was over toward Berea, near the San Souci area. We pulled up and noticed that there was not a car in the driveway. I immediately felt like this was going to be a no answer situation, due to my experience the year prior. But, the girls hopped out of the car, ready to convince someone to come back to school. We knocked on the door. No answer. We knocked again. No answer. We went around to the side of the house and knocked. No answer. So, I went up to the door to hang a door hanger with information about the program on the door, when we saw someone peek out of the curtain. Well, with new life, we began to knock again.

Now, let me tell you, we were all dressed the same. We had matching t-shirts and khaki pants. I mean, we looked like a back to school singing group. So, this is what they saw when they peeked out. 4 energetic people dressed the same, smiling and asking if they could see a boy named Matthew, a 17 year old 9th grader, or Matthew’s parents. They must have thought we were crazy.

Eventually, Matthew came to the door and I explained what we were doing there. I asked him if there was a reason why he didn’t come back to GHS. He said that he went to jail last May. We then asked him if he knew that school had started back this week. He didn’t really answer. I asked him what he wanted to do about his education. He said he was thinking about going to Greenville Tech or something. Well, that opened the door. I told him that we had many people back at Greenville High that day that could help him figure out how to make that happen. We told him that we could get a car to his house to pick him up and take him to the school. He agreed and asked if we could wait for him to get ready. Was he kidding? Of course we would.

During our time waiting outside for the transportation to get there, we all talked about how excited we were. We had a success. Just getting him to the school was a success. It showed a desire. Recognition that education is important. Some of us may have shed a tear. I’m not going to say whom, though.

I write all this simply to set up this moment. When Matthew came out, ready to go, we were still waiting on the transportation to arrive. So, we had a moment to chat with him. He told us that he went to jail in May and that’s why he didn’t finish out last year. We didn’t ask why. We didn’t need to. And, he said that he just didn’t feel like he could go back, so he didn’t. I asked him if he played sports and what he liked to do. He said he really wanted to play football and that he was trying to get a job at Furman, working in the dining hall. We talked about his family and what they were like. He told us that he has 13 brothers and sisters, ranging from 32 to 6. And, then he said something that made me want to hug him as hard as I could.

We stood there talking to Matthew about opportunities available to him. Opportunities like continuing education programs at Greenville Tech or The Sullivan Center. We told him that no mistake is unredeemable. And, he talked about his mistakes and where he’s been. Then, he said it. He looked at all of us. Denis, Stephanie, me and Meg and said, “I ain’t fallen all the way off yet.” And, he smiled.

“I ain’t fallen all the way off yet.” This means he has a desire to continue. That he wants to learn. That he knows that he is a good kid and no matter what he’s done, he can come back. He can make up for mistakes. He can better himself. He can achieve whatever he wants. He knew that. And, he wanted us to know that too. I think, at that moment, we all fell in love with Matthew and wanted to do everything we could to help him succeed.

Eventually, his mother came out to meet us. She is a wonderful woman, charged with the task of raising 14 children (9 boys, WHEW!) on her own. Her husband passed away a few years ago. She loves her children. She wants them to succeed too. She went with Matthew to the school. We watched them as they rode off and all of us breathed a sigh of wonderful relief. Matthew was waiting on a push, we felt. He was waiting to go to Tech. He was waiting to move forward with his life. He was waiting for tomorrow. Well, on that Saturday, I guess he was waiting on us. We helped give him that push.

On a beautiful Saturday morning we became inspired. We became enlightened. We became educated. I’m sure we’ll all think of Matthew every now and then and wonder how he is doing. I’m sure many of us will pray for him to succeed. We told him that we were going to keep track of him. I’m not sure he believed us. But, I do know that we were privileged to meet him and thankful that he made the decision to go back. So, here is to Matthew and his continued success.