VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. (WIAT) – Pizitz Middle School faculty and students like to say they are family. That means pushing each other and holding one of their own accountable.

Marco Johnson says the faculty and staff at Pizitz Middle School are part of the reason, after ten years, he was finally able to get his GED. He’s a custodian at the school and has another job to make ends meet.

Johnson is from Bessemer and dropped out of school at the age of 16 after his mother unexpectedly passed away. Police showed up at his door the week of the graduation exam with the news and it was a blow he had a hard time dealing with.

After multiple attempts to get in classes and study for the GED tests, he recently enrolled in courses through Lawson State. In December he passed and now his high school equivalency diploma.

Johnson says many different people helped him at Pizitz, from letting him use the computers to checking in on his progress.

“You can have visions and dreams about what you want or how you see yourself, but to actually be living it is something totally different,” said Johnson. “I just got asked this morning, ‘do you still have to pinch yourself?’ I probably have to smack myself this morning.”

“We embraced, we hugged and he said ‘don’t be hugging on me we men,’ but I felt the need to embrace him like a son and I was so proud to see him do that,” said Charles Voltz, Johnson’s co-worker and mentor.

Now that one of his goals is complete, Johnson wants to complete yet another goal: saving up for a headstone for his mother’s grave-site.

“I see pictures on Facebook all the time and people standing by their loved ones graves with flowers on it and that resonates with me,” Johnson said. “When I see that, it touches a spot on my heart. For so many years even before seeing that, the diploma and the headstone were too big burdens on my shoulder.”

Johnson is also thinking about continuing his education through college courses.