Misty Sarno had attended private school since kindergarten. When she got older, she felt her grandparents, who were raising her, had spent enough on her education and transferred to Falls Church High School for her sophomore year.
Sarno found the work too easy and some of the people unpleasant. When she returned for her junior year, she simply dropped out.
"I dropped out three times," Sarno, 21, said. "When I got there, it was too easy. I passed the 10th grade and went back the next year and just couldn't do it."
Despite her difficulties at Falls Church, Sarno, a Fairfax City resident, will be graduating in August with her high-school diploma. In the summer of 1999, she decided to enroll in the Woodson Adult High School in Fairfax, where she has been making straight A’s.
"The best word to describe her is determined," said Sissy Moses, a biology teacher at the adult high school. "When she sets her mind to do something, she is very aggressive going toward it."
SARNO decided to go back to school because she saw what was happening to all her friends and did not want to go down the same path.
"Everyone was going to jail but me," she said.
The adult high school gives her the opportunity to keep her full-time job at Ruby Tuesday’s and attend classes in the evening. If she has to skip classes because of her job, she always asks her teachers what she missed and makes up the work.
"She'll call if she can't come in or if she can't stay. That's a mature attitude," said Armi Sebastianelli, her current government teacher. "She's set her goals to complete what she's started, and whatever comes in between, she copes with."
One of the things Sarno copes with is the weather. She has a phobia about driving, so she walks a couple of miles to school.
"On what was the coldest day of the winter, I saw her sitting in the hall on the heater upstairs instead of in class. She was just shivering," said Jane Cruz, the adult high school's principal.
CRUZ said Sarno is a "real self advocate," which has helped her succeed at the school. She said Sarno is not afraid to come into her office and tell her when it is not working out with a teacher.
"She has been both a real pain for us and a real joy," Cruz said.
Mark Roadarmel, also a government teacher at the school, said a person always knows where he stands with Sarno.
"She is very energetic and has a realistic view of life," Roadarmel said. "She doesn't mince words. She is up front about issues and wouldn't waste your time with rhetoric."
Sarno said her determination comes from her grandparents. She not only is not resolved to get her high-school diploma but plans to attend Northern Virginia Community College for two years before transferring to another college to pursue historical preservation. In addition, she is engaged and has yet to begin planning the wedding.
"I can't take on too much at once," she said.