WHEN 24 year-old Clyde Grey stepped up to receive his honours diploma in Structural Engineering at the University of Technology (UTech) on Saturday, it marked the beginning of a dream and the end of a long journey that for many would have been a nightmare.

Grey faced many nights not having a place to lay his head and not knowing where his next meal was coming from. He scarcely had money to afford text books. But for this young man from a Christian home in Frankfield, Clarendon, these were merely challenges to be overcome.

“UTech was a motivation and a life challenge,” Grey said. “It’s really a book for me. I have always heard about people who have been through struggles and they have made accomplishments. Now I see myself as one of those people,” he exulted in an interview with the Observer last Friday.

Grey recalled the tough childhood he shared with his five sisters and a brother in Frankfield. His father was a sugar cane cutter and the sole breadwinner for his family. “Whatever he earned he had to split it among the seven of us.”

His situation improved in 1990 when his father got work in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That same year, at 11 years of age, he was successful in his Common Entrance Exam (now replaced by the Grade Six Achievement Test), which gave him a ticket to a secondary education at Edwin Allen Comprehensive High School and a better standard of life.

“I was very excited knowing that I was the first person from my family to pass common entrance,” Grey told the newspaper.

But even though his father was working, Grey said his family was still not out of the woods — they were still faced with serious financial difficulties. He could only afford school shoes for two terms and had no money to rent textbooks.

“I had to borrow books from my friends or sometimes I tried to go to the teacher to get extra information,” he explained.

Despite this setback, Grey said his situation motivated him to succeed. “Not having the books made me want to try harder.”

To add to his troubles, Grey had only a single pair of khaki pants and three shirts his mother purchased, that had to last for the week. “I washed the pants every two days after school,” he said. “That groomed me for the challenges that I would have to face.”

In 1997, both Grey’s parents migrated to Florida while he was attending Excelsior College. During this time, both parents were employed and as a result, he was able to live on campus.

He was accepted into the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at UTech in 1998 where he studied mechanical engineering. During that year, he stayed with his aunt, who was a live-in housekeeper. But his stay there was very frustrating because his aunt’s employer didn’t want any of her family members there.

So, whenever Grey left school at 6:00 or 7:00 pm, he had to wait until 10:00 pm when the employer was asleep, before he could get into the house.

“In one case, I had an exam the next morning and I decided that I really wanted to go in and do some work, so my aunt had to lend me her skirt for me to put on and walk pass like a lady,” he said, with a laugh, repeating the old saying: “If you want good your nose have to run.”

In 1999, at the end of his first year, he was forced to request a year off from school when he couldn’t gather enough money to pay his tuition for the next year.

In 2000, Grey transferred to the Faculty of Built Environment where he studied structural engineering.

At this time, he had nowhere to stay. At the beginning of the semester he stayed with his cousin in Pembroke Hall for a month.

Things were so tight with him that he couldn’t afford the bus fare to Papine and he was forced to seek free rides from the bus drivers after telling them his life story.

When he had to leave his cousin’s house, Grey said, some good Samaritans came in the form of his friend, Kayon Hall and his mother Sonia Hall. He was able to stay with Hall at his apartment at the University of the West Indies (UWI), rent-free, for the rest of his studies.

“Sometimes I would be worried and feel ashamed knowing that I was there and the food was to be bought and I couldn’t contribute to it,” Grey said with a sigh. “At that point, I really felt left out. Sometimes I cried, knowing that they are the ones that had to be taking care of me.”

He said he had to survive off the J$1,000 that his mother would send him every two weeks. But sometimes he had to stretch it for three weeks when the money did not arrive.

Things started looking up for Grey when he won a scholarship in the second semester of his first year that assisted with half of his $70,000 tuition for the rest of the three years.

But his problem did not end there, he said, as he couldn’t afford to buy textbooks. “I would use my friend’s book and look at the important topics, understand the basics and then go from there,” he explained.

Despite his own troubles, Grey took on many responsibilities during his three years at UTech. He was the president of the Association of Constructional Engineers of Students; coach of the male and female football teams and the track and field team for his faculty; and class representative for two years. He was also a member of the football team for three years.

Despite these responsibilities, Grey still managed to maintain an above ‘C’ plus average. In fact, in his final semester he earned six ‘A’s. “My average time in a book is about 15 minutes,” he said. “I don’t work until between four and six in the morning (when) my brain is fresh and my memory is photogenic.”

Throughout his difficulties, though, Grey said he still managed to maintain a very active social life, and had five close friends who were the only persons aware of his situation. “I went to a lot of parties at UWI and UTech,” he said with a smile.

Currently, he is a math teacher at Vere Technical High in Clarendon and he has been able to use his experiences to motivate his students.

“A lot of their behaviours have changed since I am here,” he said. “Education is the only key that can open any door.”

Now that he has his diploma, Grey plans to pursue a Masters in Geo-Technical Engineering in the next two years. “My guiding philosophy is that whatsoever the mind conceives can be achieved with hard work, dedication and prayer,” he said. “Because I am from a very poor state, I know that education is the only way for me.”

Grey said his family was very pleased with his achievements and that accepting his diploma Saturday symbolised that hard work pays off. “For every struggle that I went through, the achievements are now paying off,” he said. “For me, it gives me an inner strength and it tells me that for every struggle that I have, there is a reward of great things at the end of the road.”