Harlingen South senior graduates with perfect attendance

HARLINGEN – He never missed a day.

For 12 years, Marcos Gonzales has risen early each morning and headed off to school, diligently focusing on his schoolwork, studiously laying one brick at a time to build his future.

Now the Harlingen High School South senior is graduating number three in his class — and with perfect attendance.

“Thank God, now I can rest,” said Marcos, 18.

There has been no rest for this academic/athlete/Eagle Scout, and he’s not slowing down anytime soon.

After graduating, he’ll study exercise science on the pre-med route at the University of Texas to become an orthopedic surgeon. With perfect attendance, an impressive GPA and a 12-year unflinching commitment to scouting, he’s acquired the discipline and skills to succeed.

His parents impressed upon him from day one the importance of attending class each and every day, he said.

“I think it definitely starts when you’re younger, what your parents instill in you, work ethic, integrity, things like that,” he said. “It comes from the home. I know a lot of kids don’t have both parents at home and it’s a struggle. The first few years, I think that’s where a lot of people start to miss.”

Once grounded in that discipline, Marcos had the tools of determine and focus – and maturity – to take charge of his attendance himself.

“Later on, eighth grade, freshman year, it all comes from the student,” he said. “They’re their own self-motivation at that point. It’s their decisions that really impact their attendance.”

He applied that arsenal of success to his performance in scouts. As a member of Scout Troop 142 in Harlingen, he attained the top rank of Eagle Scout through a project at a local park.

“My Eagle Project was to construct a bridge that would go over a portion of Hugh Ramsey Nature Park,” he said. “There’s a section at the park that gets flooded, you know how every summer we have those rains that just completely saturate the Valley, at least in Harlingen. It would just flood that nature park, so now there’s a bridge that goes over that gap.”

As if that weren’t enough to keep him busy, he also had the privilege – and now the distinction – of playing on the Harlingen South Hawks football team, which was district champion this year.

“It had always been our goal to turn the Harlingen South football program around,” he said. “We had to sit there and watch the team from the other side of town beat us. And finally, it just felt so surreal to put South where it belongs.”