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.”
NONTRADITIONAL
“I’m not the cookie-cutter life. I became a mom at age 18, and so from that point on, I had to grow up really fast and just figure myself out. So doing mom, and then work, and then school, and then after school, it’s marriage—so it’s all these things not in the cookie-cutter fashion, but to me it makes sense.”
JOY
“It was a beautiful time in my life because I had no money, but that never bothered me, and looking back on it, I question why that never bother me—being 19, living at my dad’s with a person who also had no money, and that never mattered. All that mattered was that beautiful baby and how much joy she brought to my life.”
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.
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.”.
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.”
EXPERIENCE
“I thought, you know, just about everything out there has got computers, and I didn’t know how to run one. So, I figured I’d better go to school..”
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.”
TRIUMPH
“I said for my birthday I’m going to make sure I get my GED and then I’m going to go across the hall and enroll in college. I didn’t understand that college accepted people unless they were super smart and didn’t just drop out of school.”
GETTING IT DONE
“The thing about being a line staff in human services is that you don’t really ever go anywhere. You kind of just work with people and you work with people and unless you get a degree, you just kind of stay in that position forever.”