She said years ago, the achievement seemed impossible for her because of her struggles with her three children who are all teenagers. Emma wore a graduation cap with the inscription “The message is hope. The promise is freedom.”

“I didn’t think graduating college was even possible for me anymore. I have three kids who are all teenagers. My oldest is graduating high school this year, so this was something that I didn’t think I could even do,” she said.

Emma said she made so many bad decisions in her 20s which affected her life. “In my 20s, I started doing drugs and I started doing really bad, making really bad choices,” she said.

”I kept trying to be clean and I just wasn’t able to. I wasn’t able to get a hold of my life and I couldn’t get control back and I ended up homeless. I couldn’t manage my life anymore,” she added.

She said she did not see herself graduating from college as she had just planned to just earn a vocational certificate but she is glad to have persevered. “I didn’t think I was going to graduate. I just wanted to go for a vocational certificate. And it just evolved little by little,” she said.

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Emma credited the counselors at Mount San Antonio College who assisted her in making a decision and encouraged her to keep going.