Allen Brooks, at 60 years old, has honored a commitment he made to his late mother.
“Good Morning America” reports Brooks is now a college graduate, having earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a concentration in business management from Alabama A&M University. In December 2024, his family applauded his accomplishment and were brought to tears in a TikTok video, viewed at least 50 million times, on the day of his graduation.
@_brionnaofficial My Dad did his BIG ONE!!!! 1st Generation Grad( of 4 gens) Although his reason was for his mom (who passed while finishing his LAST CLASS😩😭 . my cuz @Ieshia Young made these tear dropping signs to represent her ! I mean me and my aunts were TORE UPPPP!!!! Im so proud of my Daddy!!! He is the epitome of walking in YOUR purpose and not FOR SOCIETY! He has shown me once again its NEVER too late to finish and for that and so much more i LOVE YOU & THANK YOU!🥳
Brooks admits the journey had been “tough” as he was maintaining a full-time job while juggling school.
“…But it was worth it,” he told “Good Morning America.”
Brooks’ degree also comes 38 years after he first attended the university but had to exit.
“I was only committed to the band and I allowed myself to make bad grades here and bad grades there,” Brooks explained. “But then after awhile, I got to a point to where I had to leave school. Things [came] up and then I had to get a real job to support myself.”‘
He credits his degree to his mother, who always encouraged him to return to higher education and finish school. Fulfilling a promise he made to her, he went back in 2020.
His mother however passed away in July 2024.
“When that happened, part of me was like, I was doing this for her, but I switched gears and said, ‘Mom is still with me. There’s no way I’m going to stop,'” Brooks expressed and added that she left him “right there to just cross the finish line.”
He also leaves some advice for others who are inspired by his story, saying, “Whatever you’re trying to get to make yourself better, you’re going to be faced with some type of adversity, some type of problem, but you gotta just find it within yourself [to] just keep on going. The key is to never stop — and even if you do stop, you can always pick back up where you left off.”
