For years, Allen Brooks promised his mother Sarah Pearl Brooks he would finish college.
In December 2024, the 60-year-old made his late mother's wish come true when he graduated from Alabama A&M University with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies with a concentration in business management.
"It was tough. The classes [were] tough. I was still working eight hours a day and going to school, but it was worth it," the Brewton, Alabama, native told "Good Morning America."
Brooks' daughter Brionna Washington shared an emotional TikTok video capturing the special moment Brooks walked across the stage to collect his long-awaited degree.
The video clip quickly went viral with over 50 million views and tens of thousands of TikTok users sharing their congratulations, some saying how inspired they were by Brooks' achievement.
"This is exactly what I needed to see today I needed some inspiration to finish what I started because it's easy to feel discouraged when you feel like you're behind," wrote one commenter.
Brooks first enrolled at Alabama A&M in 1982 on a partial band scholarship, but he never completed his studies and left in 1986.
"I was only committed to the band and I allowed myself to to make bad grades here and bad grades there," Brooks recalled. "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."
Over the years, Brooks went on with his life and started a family of his own, but his mother would always encourage him to consider finishing school.
"Years later, my mom, she always would say to me, 'I wish you would go back to school one day.' And I said, 'Mom, one day, I'm going to do it,'" Brooks recounted.
So in 2020, Brooks enrolled at Alabama A&M again and started taking classes while working full time.
Brooks said it wasn't easy, but along the way, his family, particularly his mom, gave him the support he needed.
"When I would get to a point in my study to where I would be like, 'Oh man, I'm getting fogged up studying for this exam,' I would turn around and call [my mom] … I would just talk to her, and [when I] get off the phone, things would start clicking," he recalled. "I say she was with me every step of the way."
Last July, months before Brooks was set to graduate, his mom died.
"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,'" he said, adding that she left him "right there to just cross the finish line."
Brooks said he is grateful he was able to finish his degree and hopes his story can help others realize their own dreams.
"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," Brooks said. "The key is to never stop -- and even if you do stop, you can always pick back up where you left off."
