From Self-Doubt to the Commencement Stage
For years, Maria Rowland carried around something invisible.
It wasn't simply an unfinished college degree.
It was the haunting belief that she had left an important part of herself behind.
As a first-generation college student, she entered college at eighteen carrying her family's hopes with her. Her father proudly told anyone who would listen that his daughter was going to college. Her grandfather, who never learned to read or write, constantly reminded her, "You can do anything you set your mind to."
But life had other plans.
College gave way to work. Work became a career in talent acquisition. Then came motherhood. As a single parent raising her daughter while building a successful career, survival understandably took priority over unfinished dreams. Years turned into decades, yet one thought never completely disappeared.
"There was always that missing piece that made me feel like I had something left undone."
Everything changed when Maria watched her own daughter leave for college.
As she encouraged her daughter to pursue her education, she realized she could no longer ignore the promise she had made to herself years earlier.
"I wanted to show her that it is never too late to achieve your goals and that lifelong learning does not have an expiration date."
Returning wasn't easy.
Her previous academic record prevented her from being admitted to the University of Louisville (UofL). She was balancing full-time work, marriage, family responsibilities, financial obligations, and the lingering doubts that accumulate after years away from the classroom.
Many people would have taken the rejection as confirmation that the opportunity had passed.
Maria chose to see it as the beginning instead.
She enrolled at Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC), determined to earn another chance.
Returning to school at forty wasn't primarily an academic challenge.
It was an exercise in rebuilding confidence.
Assignments that younger students completed with ease sometimes left her in tears. She found herself rereading instructions repeatedly, breaking large assignments into smaller pieces simply to keep from becoming overwhelmed.
Yet those difficult weekends taught her something she hadn't fully understood before.
Progress isn't built through giant leaps.
It's built one assignment, one semester, and one decision at a time.
"No matter how hard an assignment was, I had to take it one step at a time."
Along the way she also discovered that success wasn't meant to be achieved alone. Encouraging professors helped her recognize that her years of professional experience were not liabilities, they were strengths. Through leadership opportunities in the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Student Chapter, Maria began seeing herself not simply as a student earning credits, but as someone whose voice and experience belonged in higher education.
She completed her bachelor's degree with a perfect 4.0 GPA, earned Dean's List honors, served as Banner Bearer, was recognized as the Outstanding Student, and was selected as the University's student commencement speaker.
Standing before thousands of graduates inside the KFC Yum! Center, Maria realized the journey had become about something much larger than earning a diploma.
"I proved to myself that I am capable and intelligent, despite the setbacks in my past educational performance."
Today, she is continuing her education in a master's program because she no longer sees education as something on her “to do list.”
She sees it as part of becoming the person she was always capable of being.
Many adult learners return believing they need another chance to earn a degree.
Often, what they are really seeking is another chance to believe in themselves.
Maria's story reminds us that transformation doesn’t begin when circumstances become easier. It begins when someone decides that their past will no longer determine what comes next.
What she started at eighteen, she finished at forty-four.
But the most important thing she completed wasn't college.
It was the long journey from self-doubt to self-belief.
Maria Rowland is one of fifty adult learners featured in Beyond the Degree: Stories of Adult Learner Comebacks and What They Teach Us. Read her remarkable journey in her own words, and discover what these powerful comeback stories teach us about transformation, resilience, and the systems that help adults thrive.