QUESTIONS
“I just want people to know that it’s okay to question your beliefs, and if what you believe is true, then it will still be true when you’re done with your questioning. And if what you believe is not true, then you’ve just learned something really valuable and beautiful about yourself.”
BELONGING
“I like quiet places more; I want to go where there is nature, and then I came here, and I was like—wow, I love it. I mean, I miss that feeling of being in India. I might miss those people, but after coming here, it didn’t feel like left out...I just feel something I belong to.”
PATIENCE
PATIENCE “The lesson that I’ve taken away is that it isn’t wrong to say, ‘the slow one wins the race.’” If you take it slower, chances are everything plays out the way it should, so I like to follow that rule as much as possible in my life.”
Stability
I have two gorgeous little daughters, and I’m pretty much a single mom…I have a degree in technical theatre from the University of Montana, but I kind of wanted to get out of that and find a career that would be a little more stable for raising two young daughters…so I came to Helena College to get my nursing degree.
BACK TO SCHOOL
“When I got accepted into pharmacy school, and I told her [my daughter], the first thing she said was, ‘I’m so proud of you, Mom,’ and so that’s all I needed to hear because the whole reason I’m doing it is so I can pay for her to go to college and to do things that I didn’t get to do.”
NEXT STEPS
“When I was staying home with [my daughter], I became actively involved in my church. That was a lot of healing time for me, from the things I was doing before. It took a long time to heal and get my self-confidence back, and… then coming to school just seemed like the next natural step. It’s neat—especially as a nontraditional student, when you’re older—and you realize that you can still go after something that you’re passionate about.”
INSPIRATION
"I was kind of a broken kid at the time, so I wasn’t talkative at all. I was really quiet and to myself and my uncle knew that, but he brought me back here. My aunt and my little cousins were excited to see me with my broken tooth and big black eye.... But I was getting better. They were bringing me back to church, and I was realizing what Jesus had done for me—saved me off the streets, sent my aunt and uncle for me, and I regained that relationship with Him.”
WORK ETHIC
“The workplace landscape is changing, and with that, so must I. To be able to continue to be successful—like my role models—I must also change. This is the driving force behind my decision to come back to college to earn my degree…. I won’t let anything stand in my way.”
JUDGMENT
“My learning disabilities and my stress disorders—those have probably been the hardest, especially growing up. Being told by my family that I was stupid. Being told by some teachers that I was stupid. That was the hardest. It still affects me. I lack confidence in myself because of all those years I was told I was stupid.”
Hardship
Being a single mom and having to get public assistance has been the hardest thing. I never asked to be a single mom. I never asked for the fathers of my children to walk away. So when I have to fill out, for the fifty-millionth time, child support papers…it just opens that wound all over again.
OPPORTUNITY
As I grew up, there was this sense of being disorganized, and I felt trapped in that, and I really wanted to get out. When you’re little and you grow up that way, you think, “Oh, this is all there is,” but when you see other people who are successful, it changes your perspective on success and gives you hope for opportunity.
FAITH
“Growing up in a poor family, the opportunity for a college education seemed unattainable. As I was now raising my own children and working to make ends meet, I was fortunate to work and worship with individuals who would become mentors and show me that others’ views of me isn’t what I should believe about myself. Due to my faith and mentors, I haven’t given up on my dream of obtaining a college degree.”
TRY
“I’ve never actually sat down and said, you know, I want to do something that’s going to better the world, but, you know, I’ve got to try it out.”
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
“If I had to say where my story would start, I would definitely say it started as a teen mom.”
BREAKING CYCLES
“You’re never too old to learn. Because I’m now 52, and I started this when I was 48. I’m grandmother of eight…and in me going to college now, I’m showing my grandchildren that, yes, college is important.”.
BALANCE
“I actually signed up for the Navy the summer after my junior year, so my entire senior year, I knew I was going into the military.”
RECOVERY
“I want my kids to know that no matter what they go through in life, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Twenty, twenty-five years ago, there was no hope. In another semester or two, I’m going to be walking across that graduation stage.”
BREAKING BARRIERS
“I am the first to attend college. I am the first of my immediate family to graduate high school. I mean, I’ve already broken down all the barriers.”
OVERCOMING
“I have a brain injury, and I was in an accident when I was 19—coma for 15 days, learned to walk and talk all over again. Never thought I’d be able to do college, never. And my husband looked at me and said, ‘You’re not dumb, you’re not. You’ll go.’”
SURVIVING
“I’m a survivor. I’m that. I mean, I’ve been through a lot. I celebrate my 40th birthday at the end of the month. It’s amazing. Here I am, raising four kids on my own and going to school and working and taking care of my grandma. I have a lot of people say: how do you do it? I don’t know, I just do it. There’s no option. It just has to be done.”