By Jerrie Whiteley, Herald Democrat

High school graduates overcome a variety of obstacles to reach that pinnacle goal in their lives. Two of Sherman High School’s first-generation grads have overcome family situations that could have ended their high school careers, but instead, at the end of the month, they will be doing something no one else in their families have done. 

Uzziah Bryant has lost both of his parents and is living with a friend’s family and Shamiah Johnson’s mother dealt with the affects of alcoholism, yet both of these teens have been able to put those obstacles aside to obtain to make it to their high school graduation and are looking forward to continuing their education.

Bryant said he went Texoma Christian School before transferring to Sherman High School for his freshman year due to finances. 

“It’s been a good experience,” he said of his time at SHS. As youngest of six siblings, Bryant said he is really excited to be able to be the sibling that will get his diploma.

“It feels pretty good to know that I made my mom proud because she wanted me to graduate,” Bryant said.

His older siblings dropped out of school before reaching that goal. Bryant said seeing his older brothers leave school without really trying to graduate made him more determined to hang in there and find a path to graduation.

“At the end, it got easier, but there have been some hurdles,” he said.

One of the things that helped him stay in school was the fact that he could take nontraditional classes like construction.  

“We did a lot projects in there,” he said.

He really liked the hands-on learning aspects of those nontraditional classes.  

“(The teachers) all helped me a tremendous amount,” he said. They pushed me to get to where I am.”

When he leaves Sherman High School behind, Bryant will be heading to Texas State Technical College in Waco. He is planning to study construction and HVAC. His interest in that kind of work came from his father who worked construction and from a little do-it-yourself project he took on when he was younger.

One summer, the air conditioning went out at his grandmother’s house, and they couldn’t really afford to have it repaired.

“I went out there and fixed it myself,” he said. “It was kind of easy just looking at Youtube and stuff.”

From then on, he was hooked on doing that kind of work. 

While he is going to miss his high school friends, teachers and counselors, Bryant is excited to get to a new place and have new experiences.

“I am going to stay in South Texas,” he said. “I will come back to visit.”

Bryant is looking forward to exploring and discovering places like Houston. 

Johnson has also spent her entire school career in Sherman Independent School District. She said her mom has been a strong influence on her getting to this point.

“She didn’t get to do it, so she has really pushed me a lot to be the best that I can be,” Johnson said.

Her mother pushed her to be really involved in school.

“I’ve participated in pretty much everything around here,” she said noting that she really enjoyed being a part of the sports program there at the school.

“I’m a real big basketball girl,” said the four-year varsity guard. She was an only child but her cousins were all involved in sports and so she got involved at an early age.

Sports helped her stay plugged in at school and stay the course to reach her goal to graduate.

She has particularly enjoyed athletic training classes because they allowed her to combine her interest in the medical field with her love of sports and she anticipates that she will do something in the medical field down the road.

A full ride basketball scholarship will take her two a college in the Granger area of the state. 

Achieving that success, she said, meant she had to overcome a lot of distractions in her home life. 

“My mom was like a huge alcoholic, and I was like “Nah, I’m not going to do that with my life,” she said. 

She said she would advise others who are aiming to become their family’s first high school graduate to stick with what they know. “Don’t let other people dictate what you want to do,” she said. 

The community of friends that she was able to form while at Sherman High School is what she is going to miss the most as she leaves it behind, Johnson said. 

“I pretty much grew up with most of them,” she said of the students she has known through the years.

She said the athletics community at Sherman has really been like a family to her.