Mario Brown - On His Own to Be a Great Person

By Amber Lester Tuesday, June 08, 2010

It would be too easy to be bitter.

Warhill High School senior Mario Brown doesn’t believe in that. He’s too focused on his goals to let his problems weigh him down.

Like most of his classmates, Brown is focusing on getting the piece of paper that says he’s completed high school. Unlike most of his classmates, he isn’t sure if his parents will be in the audience when he grasps a diploma in his hands.

Since November, Brown has been living on his own. The 19-year-old pays for his rent and utilities with his earnings from his job at Food Lion. He says there was “drama” at home, and he could no longer live with his mother; if he’d stayed, he says it would have been “a bad situation.” He wanted to move out on his own, but didn’t know how he could without quitting school. For a brief moment in October, he considered dropping out.

“It came to mind sometimes, but it’s like…do you want to give up or do you want to finish?” he says, during an interview at Nails by Lisa, a nail salon where his girlfriend Christine Dayrit works.

Christine told her family about Mario’s problems at home and they immediately wanted to know how they could help. Nenita, who had known Mario for two years, says it was hard to understand because he is one of the most respectful and responsible young men she’s met.

“I told him if he and my daughter had problems, he’s still my son,” Nenita says. “I don’t want him to go anywhere else. I’m looking out for his future, so his parents will see that he’s successful.”

The Dayrits helped Mario find an affordable apartment and he is invited to join the family for meals or shopping trips. When he’s not at work, Mario is typically surrounded by women at the nail salon, eating a meal while working on his homework in the corner.

He also receives support from his guidance counselor, Laurie Artman, who says he works harder than any student she has ever known. “Relax is not in his vocabulary,” she says.

Mario transferred to Warhill from New Kent County at the beginning of his junior year. He had played football in New Kent, but had to stop after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament. He says he moved to James City County to be closer to his doctors for the recovery period.

Artman was struck by Mario’s motivation when he visited her office last year. “The very first time I met him, he came in by himself to enroll and he made an impression on me as being so mannerly and much more mature than most students his age,” she says.

Artman helped sign Mario up for the classes he needed to graduate in James City County, which requires 28 credits to graduate (the state requires 22). She is happy to report his grade point average is 3.0, a feat for a student who could easily skip doing his homework. “To be going through what he’s going through, I have never heard him say, ‘Why me?’ or ‘Gee, this is so hard,’” she says. “He just says, ‘I gotta do what I gotta do.’”

While living alone could sound fun to some teens, Mario says it isn’t easy and he wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. “Part of me feels bad I’m not with my family,” he says. “It’s much harder when you’re without your parents than when you’re with them.”

He regrets that he and his mother haven’t reconciled, but says he is focused on his future. His idol is Will Smith; one of the actor’s quotes is his mantra: “If you can be a great person, go out there and try.”

He plans to attend Thomas Nelson Community College, where he hopes to get his GPA up to 3.6 to transfer to The College of William and Mary. He would like to work in a profession that allows him to help people, either as a high school coach or as a nurse. He thinks he could be a good role model for kids if he became a coach; if he succeeds, he’ll be the first college graduate in his immediate family.

Artman has no doubts he’ll achieve something great. “He’s going to make it. He’s just got that attitude,” she says. “If I had a son, I would want him to be exactly like Mario.”