By Allie Pino

During the past three years here at Sherwood, junior Colin Brandy has never been interested in school and has been barely passing his classes. Teachers say all he does is sleep and play Super Mario Brothers or Backyard Baseball on his Nintendo Game Boy. His second-period teacher, June Hack, reported that Brandy ran out of her classroom, screaming, because he hit a grand slam to win the game he was playing. Hack gave Brandy a book to help him get out of his bad habits.

In the book called “How Children Succeed,” Paul Tough highlights character-building traits, like self control, social intelligence, curiosity, grit and optimism. Because Brandy never has anything better to do during school, he read the first couple pages of the book, saw things that related to him, and found out why he was failing at life. He never had these so-called “character skills” to help him succeed. To be a Pizza Hut manager meant he had to graduate high school and because his chances of that were slim, Brandy decided to take up the challenge of succeeding in life. He implemented everything Tough mentioned. He built a close attachment to his parents, fought the fear of failure, and tried to become a confident person.

Brandy spent time with his parents more often, but then got the urge of wanting to be independent. He applied for a job at Pizza Hut to start his pathway of becoming a manager. When he did a problem wrong on his homework, instead of just giving up, he would try it again. His next report card showed three Bs and four Cs, better than his previous reports of straight Ds. He also sold his Game Boy and all his games to buy a new calculator. After listening to what the book said, he became fascinated with learning.

By finding and absorbing character strengths, life can be a breeze. Weeks after Brandy’s application was submitted, he got a call informing him of his new job as a waiter. Today, Colin Brandy is a prime example of what all students should do to become successful now and in the future. As long as you try your hardest and read “How Children Succeed,” you too will reach your highest potential to work at any Pizza Hut you want.