The clock above the classroom door moved at a snail’s pace. Mike inhaled the fresh spring breeze blowing in through the window and tapped his fingers on hard wood. One by one, Mrs. Markham placed the tests face down. His pencil, filled with chew marks, felt awkward in sweaty palms. Twenty more minutes?and the weekend would be here?if only he could have kept it hidden a moment longer.
Her heels clicked on the linoleum, creating a clatter loud enough for a few quick chews. Soft pink bubble gum, the kind that you could blow bubbles with as big as your face, burst with sweetness. But Mike didn’t feel brave enough to try that. Not now. Placing the goo between in his cheek seemed like the perfect hide out. Until . . .
Boredom got the best of him. The aroma of pencil shavings made him think about wood, which got him thinking about making things, which carried his mind off the beaten path of test time. Before he knew it, Mike was found staring straight into the ringlets of the little girl who sat in front of him. He was deep in thought about whatever it is little boys think about, chomping on that piece of gum like a chunk of sirloin.
“Michael Allen?step outside young man, right now!”
Twenty pair of eyes followed him out the door. In the hallway, Mrs. Markham held the ruler just right, administering twenty lashes (really only two) onto the inside of Mike’s wrist. Mike walked back to his desk that day, and underneath the blush, grew a new respect for his teacher?and eventually, for the importance of a good education.

As I sat with Mike Allen thirty years later, he recalled memories of his favorite teacher with tenderness. “I thought the world of her,” he said. With college graduation just around the corner, we lounged on the elementary school benches, and chatted about the journey that got him there. Every choice he made through the years created a hero-one who seemed pretty ordinary on the surface. Like the courageous few who dare to go after their dreams, Michael Allen risked it all for the sake of making a difference.
Like most boys his age, Mike entertained dreams of playing professional ball. He plodded through school, focusing more on the moment rather than the future. After graduating from high school, Mike decided to join the military. While serving in interrogation, Mike met his wife Monica. They were married, and while Monica worked on finishing her education, Mike got a job working for the post office. “It was a good job, the kind of job you don’t have to worry about losing, but my heart wasn’t there, and I couldn’t think about having to do twenty four more years of service without having any passion.”
Through the support and encouragement of his wife Monica, and the championing of his mother who recently passed away, Mike resigned from the post office so that he could go back to school full-time. “It was the toughest decision I’ve ever made. You are in your comfort zone, where you are getting good money and benefits-I mean your whole family is on the line when you do something like this. I just really wanted to try and make a difference in people’s lives in a positive way. To work toward doing something I enjoy.”
Monica’s own passion for education gave Mike the push he needed to pursue his dreams. Working as a high school Spanish teacher for ten years, Monica offered support in very tangible ways. She is currently working towards her master’s degree. “There is nothing better than what my wife has done for me. She has such a positive attitude. We all need someone in our lives to give us words, or to give us the strength we need to get through.”
Mike was also inspired to finish his degree by an interpersonal communications professor. “There were only five men in the class, the rest were women. So she called on us guys a lot. This experience really gave me the confidence to move forward. She told me that I would make a good counselor with the voice I had and the gentleness about me. That kind of led me down this path. She was the most influential of all of my professors.”
A critical thinking class also became monumental for Mike’s educational journey. “Our professor had us look beyond what was written on a piece of paper, to go inside and question it, to look at details not taking things at face value. I did a paper about universal healthcare, and for something I didn’t believe in, at the end of the paper I realized that we really do need universal healthcare. He was not so concerned with grades, he just wanted us to think?to question everything. It is good to ask questions because if you don’t ask questions then you will never know the truth about something.”
Mike’s education was intermittent, picking up a class or two from 1996 to 2006. Going back to school later in life has been a challenge for Mike, as his concentration is not what it used to be. Fulfilling the role of husband and father does add a few distractions. But Mike has overcome those bumps by studying late at night. “Some people are morning people and some are night people, their bodies and minds perform a little bit better at a specific time. I’m a night person. I worked my whole life up until I decided to go back to school full-time, and if you ask me, a job in many ways is so much easier. With work, you do your job and then you come home. But with school, there is always something you could be working on. It is hard to make that adjustment.”
Majoring in psychology with a concentration in child development, Mike hopes to work with elementary age children in a classroom environment. His long-term goal is to become a child psychologist. “The brain is an amazing thing. The way we behave, the way that we function, everything revolves around our thinking, whether it is automatic or not. I really enjoy working to see that spark, when a child gets something. There is so much potential at that age. They are still forming and you can make a positive impact on them that can last through their lifetime. It is a crucial time developmentally, and that is the kind of impact I hope to have?to make a difference in children’s lives.”
Volunteering several hours in his daughter Olivia’s first grade class brings Mike a lot of fulfillment. A pizza party, hosted by Mike himself, encouraged a love for reading this year. “Every day that I come and am able to spend time around little kids, they just energize me. And for days when I’m not feeling so well, the kids give me a boost. Children at that age very rarely have a bad day.”
Next on the horizon will be the job search. “I am trying to set worry aside, feeling a little bit anxious about finding a job. But this journey has absolutely been worth it. There is a lot of dedication that you have to put into finishing school, and you generally feel good about accomplishing that. I learned so much from my professors, but even more amazing were the things I learned about myself. They could take everything I have away from me, but I will still have my education.”
Being one of the first in his family to make it this far, Mike really values his degree. With hopes of reaching today’s children, he will be tapping into the difficulties of what it means to be a kid. “I want to be able to relate and really listen and get through to them, not just for obedience purposes but to get them thinking about the decisions they are making and the paths they are choosing. I want to help them as much as I can to succeed in whatever road they choose in life. So many people tell kids that they can’t do this, and they can’t do that. I want to be someone who tells them that they can.”
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