For nearly four decades, Shawn Hughes carried what he believed was one of the biggest disappointments of his life. The Cincinnati man thought he had failed to graduate from high school in 1986.
But he was completely wrong.
At 58 years old, Hughes began studying to earn his GED. Instead, he received a surprise that left him stunned: the Black man had already earned his high school diploma nearly 40 years earlier, WCPO reported.
“Like three weeks into taking the classes, they called me to the office and told me, ‘Shawn, you already have your diploma,’” Hughes said. “And I was like, ‘What?’”
The revelation brought an end to a misunderstanding that had followed Hughes for most of his adult life. He’d been sent to summer school at the end of his senior year at Woodward High School, WLWT5 reported. Hughes missed several classes due to sickness, however, and assumed he had failed to meet graduation requirements.
“I was absent from school those three days that they gave me, so I assumed I didn’t graduate,” Hughes told WCPO.
Rather than question it, he simply moved on. As the years passed, Hughes lived with the belief that he had fallen short. The disappointment lingered as he navigated adulthood and battled alcoholism.
“I wasn’t doing anything but destroying myself and looking at death,” Hughes said.
His life began to change when he entered recovery through Prospect House, a long-term recovery program in Cincinnati. As he worked to rebuild his future, Hughes decided to return to the classroom and pursue a GED through Cincinnati Public Schools’ ASPIRE Adult Education program, according to WLWT5.
Source: A Black Man Thought He Was a High School Dropout, But the Records Told a Different Story
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