Kootenai graduate finds success upon return home

Some 75 years ago, author Thomas Wolfe wrote the novel “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Kootenai High School senior Gage Williams has a different perspective.

In Williams’ view, returning to Kootenai two years ago is what prevented him from becoming a dropout, and perhaps worse, after a tortuous academic path that saw him change schools 18 times in seven years and refuse to attend the first semester of his junior year in Nampa.

“My mom and I moved a lot, and my dad is incarcerated,” he said, “so after I was at Kootenai from kindergarten through third grade, we were all over the place. I’m the oldest of five siblings, but only two of the others live with me, and the other two with my mom.”

Williams lives with his stepfather, Paul Gooden, whom he credits with providing him the most stable environment he’s ever had. After Williams had been suspended during his sophomore year for non-attendance in Nampa and then didn’t return to school in the fall, it was Gooden who called and invited him to return to Kootenai and live with him.

“I had given up on school in Nampa,” he said. “There was a mix-up in my credits and I got really upset and saw no purpose in continuing. I was angry at the world, but my stepdad offered me a second chance. I knew that I was on my way to becoming a dropout hoodlum if I stayed.

“I had one day to make a decision, and I got on a bus not exactly sure where I was going. It had been three years since I’d been back at Kootenai, but it turned out to be a great opportunity to come back and work for what I earned. I feel honored and privileged to have lucked out like this and be able to graduate on time.”

Williams’ counselor, Kevin Kincheloe, is amazed by his attitude, considering all the setbacks he’s encountered.

“Gage is unfailingly bright, cheery and upbeat. It’s just fun to see him every day,” Kincheloe said. “I was just trying to figure it out the other day. You look at a kid like Gage and see what he’s experienced, and wonder what it was that allowed him to keep a positive attitude.

“It makes me a little bit mad when I look at kids in similar circumstances who play the martyr role. That would have been easy for Gage to do, too, but since he returned, he never has.”

Williams works at the K-12 school four days a week in the Kootenai Interactive Tutor Enrichment program, cooking, cleaning and prepping the facilities. He has hopes – encouraged by Kincheloe – of enlisting in the Air Force after graduation, but he’s a little nervous.

“I was immature and irresponsible before I came back here,” Williams said. “I never would have got this anywhere else, so I try to pay it back by being nice to others. It will be hard to leave and give up control of my life in the military.

“But I’m also determined to make sure that my life isn’t one that will be ignored, and I want to serve my country and help the world. I got to live in one of the best places on earth, and I owe it to myself to help.”