[Archive: Newspaper Article] 'Failure' sees more successes in future

'Failure'sees more successes in future
The Arizona Republic
July 13, 2002

I want to thank you for allowing Larry Bohlender to write that fine piece he did about me (June 15, This student marches to his own drumbeat) it caught me by surprise.

As mentioned in the article, I got kicked out of Glendale High School a month prior to graduating during my senior year in 1998 after problems with the administration. I could have gotten a lawyer and graduated on
time like another student did this year at Sunrise Mountain, but I let my failure fuel my ambitions.

One faculty member at Glendale High School commented to me, "Good luck," adding that I was not "going to amount to anything." For half a year, I believed that faculty member. Maybe I didn't deserve to graduate. I didn't let his words stand in my way.

During the past four years, those same words have echoed in my ears as a reminder to succeed. I have many goals that I will accomplish in my life, like political office or becoming a well-known journalist, but I know
I won't want to use a lawyer to achieve my goals.

I look at all the hard times I have been through during my lifetime, and I thank all my true friends, family, teachers, and people like Larry Bohlender who did believe in me and urged me to move on.

One day this student from Sunrise Mountain will realize the shortcut she took and will regret not actually earning her diploma like the millions of students do each year.

Gabriel Cruz
Glendale