From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is My Unsung Hero, stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

My Unsung Hero is a boy named Spencer.

Every Sunday, Julie would drop off soup at our house.

I look forward to it every week.

I would say thank you for giving me one of the best gifts of my life.

Today's story comes from John Haguewood.

Where John was 16, he found out he was going to become a father.

By the following year, in 2008, he was working two jobs while

also caring for his baby and attending school. It was too much. He had enough credits to apply

for a GED, so he decided to drop out of school and pursue that path. That spring, John made an

appointment with his principal, Billy Barnett,

to share his decision. So I show up in his office, which is just like a little closet effectively,

and Mr. Barnett called me in, and it's just a single desk with a chair, sits me down,

and I told him that I was ready to drop out of high school because

I had two jobs and a baby at home and, you know, I was living in the real world and I needed to

provide for my family and I didn't have time for high school anymore. And he's imploring me to continue with high school and that he wasn't going to let me drop out.

And I told him that it was my choice.

And he looked me in the eyes and was like, it may seem that way and I understand that you have a lot going on.

But it's very important that you finish high school and that you get this diploma

because it's going to shave the rest of your life. So he bargained with me to stay into school

and he was able to cut some of my classes and kind of make it fit for my schedule. And I kept my

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