Today, Troy LaRaviere is president of the Chicago Principal and Administrators Association. But when he was graduating from high school on Chicago’s South Side, LaRaviere didn’t think he should go to college.

Instead, he joined the Navy. After his service, he said his girlfriend got him to enroll at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he said he excelled. During a visit to the StoryCorps booth at the Chicago Cultural Center, he reflected on what it was about his upbringing that gave him such low self-esteem.

This recording was made possible through a partnership between StoryCorps Chicago and Young Chicago Authors. Special thanks to Kevin Coval for interviewing LaRaviere.

Bill Healy produces StoryCorps for WBEZ. Follow him @chicagoan.