It's just after 6 a.m. and Gladwin Osakwe is already on his way to school.
It's a journey that begins with a mile-and-a-half skateboard ride from his home in Gardena and continues on a bus ride along Crenshaw Boulevard before transferring to the Metro Blue line.
He then hops back on his skateboard for the final stretch to Orthopaedic Medical Magnet High School near downtown Los Angeles.
The total commute time? One and half hours, one way.
"My whole life has been focused on my education," Gladwin said.
Gladwin's focus on a quality education started in middle school, where he endured a four-hour round trip commute to a public school on the west side.
"After school I'd go to the library to do my homework and wait for my mom to pick me up after work," he recalled. "Sometimes it was 8 or 9 and it was dark. Sometimes they'd close early so I'd have to wait outside."
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What inspires him to endure is his mother.
"She doesn't want me to live the same, go through the same troubles, experiences, the sad days, the times you want to cry but don't want to cry in front of your children," he said.
Gladwin held back tears while thinking about how much she's done for his family.
"I have to be able to provide for her when she's older and she can't work anymore because she has provided so much for me," he said.
Gladwin's family has moved every year because of rising rent. They've lived in a motel twice.
"I try not to focus on how terrible this is," he said. "I focus on what I'll be doing in the future, how this is all just a stepping stone to get to a better life at some other point in time."
Not one to shy away from a challenge, Gladwin is student body president and excelled during a summer internship with Orthopaedic Children's Institute, which partners with his school.
"He literally went and read hundreds of articles," said Xiuleth Santibanez, the magnet coordinator at Orthopaedic. "He went above and beyond because he really fell in love with it."
His determination is paying off in a big way. Gladwin will start at New York University in the fall where he'll major in bio engineering.
While his daily journey to high school will soon end, Gladwin knows it's one that will impact the rest of his life.
