It’s How You Finish

Port Barre Elementary School in Port Barre, Louisiana has a story to tell.
This school has an amazing principal.
It is not so much the way he leads his school as much as the way he got to lead his school.
Port Barre Elementary School’s principal is the quintessential role model to his students.

Joseph “Gabe” Sonnier planned to go to college right after high school.
However, when his parents separated, he knew that his mother needed help paying the bills.
Gabe Sonnier’s mother was a housekeeper.
Her pay was not enough to make ends meet.

After only one semester, Gabe left school and went to work to help his mother.
Gabe worked in construction, at a grocery store, and in a sawmill.
Finally, he went to work at Port Barre Elementary School as a janitor.
Gabe thought that he would work as a janitor for five or ten years.

Those five or ten years turned very quickly into twenty years.
Someone noticed him.
In 1985, the principal of the school, Wesley Jones, called Gabe aside.
Mr. Jones shared a plan with Gabe that Gabe himself had never considered.

Being a janitor is a good job and it’s an honest living, but I taught you unlimited potential. I think you’d benefit the students better as an educator. I’d rather see you grading papers than picking them up. (Principal Wesley Jones, September 2016)

It took fifteen years but Gabe Sonnier took Wesley Jones’ advice.
At the age of 39, Gabe went back to school while he worked full time as a janitor.
Gabe arrived at the school at 5am and worked until 7am.
He then went to classes at Louisiana State University, Eunice and the University of Louisiana.

Gabe would return to work after he finished his night classes.
He would then go home and do homework without getting much rest.
In 2006, he graduated from LSU, Eunice with an associate’s degree in general studies.
In 2008, a bachelor’s degree followed in elementary education from the University of Louisiana.

Gabe began teaching school in the same building he used to clean.
Gabe went on to receive his master’s degree.
He soon received a promotion.
Joseph “Gabe” Sonnier became the principal of the same building he cleaned as a janitor.

Who would have thought 33 years ago, when I set foot on this campus, that I’d eventually be the leader of this school? (Gabe Sonnier)

Gabe Sonnier has a perpetual smile on his face.
He truly cannot frown.
He loves all the students.
He is an incredible role model for them.

Don’t let your situation that you’re in now define what you’re going to become later.
Principal Sonnier tells the students something he has lived out in his own life.
It’s not where you start, it’s how you finish, he tells them.
Gabe Sonnier finished well.

Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in faith, and in purity…Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will serve both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:11,12,15,16)

Higher education is almost expected in today’s culture.
There is often a ho-hum attitude toward it.
It is often the next thing to do after high school.
How many students truly see the benefit and appreciate the labor of those who make it possible?

Gabe Sonnier worked a grueling schedule to provide an education for himself.
He took Wesley Jones’ advice to heart fifteen years after it was given to him.
Gabe took a path that he had to forge with hard work and determination.
Nothing was spoon fed to him.

Gabe Sonnier can speak into his students’ lives because he has been there.
Gabe is the proof they need that hard work pays off.
Age, socioeconomic status, race, and the pressures of life did not deter Gabe from this dream.
What if Wesley Jones has never spoken to Gabe and shared his vision with him?

Are there young people in your life who need that same encouragement?
Do you see skills and ability in a young person that they may not even be aware of?
Have you told them?
Have you given them a dream to work towards?

Encouragement and kind words should be spoken early and spoken often.
Encouraging words are like a pebble dropped into a pond.
There is no telling how far the ripples will go.
A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. (Proverbs 25:11)

Gabe Sonnier has one requirement.
He insists on cleaning his own office every night.
It’s the way of things.
It’s the work ethic that got him where he is now.

Joseph “Gabe” Sonnier’s students are watching him.
How wonderful.
There are other Gabes out there, and they should know that there’s hope, he says.
Hope is what Principal Sonnier holds out every single day.

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