Comfort in the memories

BY DEXTER MCCREE, Feature Writer

ST. PETERSBURG –  Every year, the first day of school was memorable for Trajan Trueblood because his mother would walk him and his sister to class.

When Trajan got to the fifth grade, however, he figured now that he was older the parental escort service would cease, but it didn’t. Mom was right there making sure that her babies got to where they needed to be. That’s parenting at its finest; although, Trajan wouldn’t have minded a little slack.

Time eventually lent itself to end the parent drop off, now an official 2017 graduate of Gibbs High School. He has many childhood memories, ones that he will cherish forever.

“I remember attending Bay Point Elementary School where I went from kindergarten to fifth grade,” said Trajan.”

During his fifth grade year, he was chosen to participate in the 5000 Role Models mentoring group, which helped keep him on his path to success.

Over that summer he decided to play football. Although football was not the first sport that he played, it was his favorite.

“I remember in my first football game, my coach told me to run down the sideline towards my mom,” recalled Trajan. “Once I got the ball, surprisingly that run turned into my first touchdown! After that, I realized that I was pretty good at football so I developed a passion for it.”

Entering his freshman year, he was a little nervous because in middle school he was taller than most people, but that wasn’t the case in high school. His fears were soon calmed when he walked into his Algebra 1 class and met Ms. Corbett, his second mom.

“I remember when I’d talk a little too much she would always say: ‘You want me to call your mom? You know she said that I could call her at any time, right.’”

Ms. Corbett was a motivating and helped Trajan succeed. With her encouragement, he maintained a 3.8 grade point average in his first year of high school. He was nominated for The Take Stock in Children scholarship, which has a minimum requirement of a 2.0 grade point average.

 A few weeks being in the program he began meeting with his mentor Dr. Miller.

“Dr. Miller inspired and motivated me to do well just as my own family would. My family and Dr. Miller have encouraged me to strive for greatness and that anything is possible.”

Trajan joined the AVID program in his freshman year, which also proved to be very instrumental in his success.

In his sophomore year, he played junior varsity football and made a lot of new friends that stuck with him through his varsity years.

Trajan plans to attend St. Augustine University in the fall and major in business and engineering. He has been accepted to be a preferred walk-on at the Division II football team.