Joseph “Gabe” Sonnier has a smile that could light up a room. Sonnier has every reason to smile as he’s made a journey from being a janitor at Port Barre Elementary in Port Barre, Louisiana to currently serving as the school’s principal.

For 27 years, Sonnier cleaned up after students and staff after dropping out of Southern University in order to help his mother who was struggling to support him and his four siblings. Following several jobs in construction, a sawmill and a supermarket, Sonnier attended T.H. Harris Vocational School in Opelousas for electrical circuitry. It was his background in high school helping his father clean office buildings that led him to apply for a custodial position at Port Barre.

In 1985, the school’s then-principal, Albert August, pulled Sonnier aside and expressed that he should be “grading papers rather than picking them up” as Sonnier was a former history student of August’s. He took his words to heart. At age 39, Sonnier decided to go back to school and attended LSU at Eunice while working as the school’s janitor.

“I would get to school at 5 a.m. and then leave at 7 a.m. to get to LSU-Eunice. After classes, I would come back at 8:30 p.m. and work the rest of my hours, usually until around midnight. Then I would go home and do homework and get two or three hours of sleep,” Sonnier said.

In 2008, he began teaching fourth grade at Port Barre and later received his master’s degree in educational leadership through an online program at Arkansas State. St. Landry Parish School Board members unanimously appointed Sonnier as principal.

“Don’t let your situation that you’re in now define what you’re going to become later,” Sonnier said in an interview with CBS. “I always tell them it’s not where you start, it’s how you finish.”

Learn more about Sonnier’s journey from The Advocate. And check out the video below from CBS News where Principal Sonnier shares his journey.