When Gale Sagucio receives her high-school diploma tomorrow morning, it will be the final chapter in a story that has stretched through three different decades. Sagucio, who lives in Kekaha with her 18-year-old son Jack, says the diploma she’ll accept
When Gale Sagucio receives her high-school diploma tomorrow morning, it will be the final chapter in a story that has stretched through three different decades.
Sagucio, who lives in Kekaha with her 18-year-old son Jack, says the diploma she’ll accept at the Kaua’i Community School for Adults commencement ceremony has been something she’s wanted ever since 1980, when she should have graduated from high school.
But as her senior year progressed back then, her attendance grew increasingly sporadic, ultimately ending in her dropping out and taking a job with her parents’ business.
“All of a sudden, I just stopped going,” she said.
In 1982, Sagucio made a short-lived attempt at studying for her diploma, but that didn’t last.
“I went just partially, and then gave up,” she said.
As the years went by and her son progressed through the school system, Sagucio said she became determined to finally finish the requisites for graduation.
“Here I was stressing education to my son, and I didn’t even have a degree,” she said.
In 1999, Sagucio began taking classes at Kaua’i Community School for Adults, located on the Kaua’i High School campus. She realized she would quickly have to find a way to balance her roles as mother, employee and student.
“It’s not like high school, where you can miss most of the classes,” she said.
With each unit stretched over five weeks, Sagucio said she worked harder than she’d ever worked before to gain her diploma, especially in the government and law class, which she enjoyed above most of the other courses.
“It was good because you get to know more about the law and you have to do a lot of research,” she said.
Sagucio said she was proud that she finally managed to pass the classes she had missed so long ago.
“Education is the most important thing in life,” she said. “And it’s harder when you do it later on in life.”
Instead of having to settle for attending her friends’ graduation 21 years ago, Sagucio said she’ll be proud to have family members attending tomorrow’s ceremony and watching as she finally gets her diploma.
With learning back on her list of priorities, Sagucio said she may decide to enter higher education after a little bit of rest.
“I might end up going to KCC (Kaua’i Community College) and take some computer classes,” she said.
Staff writer Matt Smylie can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and msmylie@pulitzer.net
