Rhonda McConnell’s only worry on graduation day will be not tripping.

She does not have the same worries for her daughter, who will be walking across the same stage only a few moments before her.

Rachel McConnell, a senior public communications studies major, is terrified.

She’s been in school for 18 years of her life. The daunting task of finding a job now lies before her while still balancing homework and graduating, she said.

Rhonda, in the Bachelor of Arts in General Studies Degree Program, said she’s lucky she has none of that pressure to get a job because she already has one.

“All along, all these classes that I’ve taken, it’s never been with this, ‘I have to do this. I need an education so I can get a good job,'” she said.

That’s what her daughter and other traditional college students go through, Rhonda said.

“I’m more nervous about just walking and not falling,” she said.

“I’ll laugh the loudest if you do,” Rachel said.

“I bet you will,” Rhonda said.

Along with the McConnells, about 1,662 others will walk at the graduation ceremony.

A short notice

It wasn’t until March that Rhonda found out for sure she would be able to graduate.

“I wanted (Rachel) to graduate first and, honestly, I don’t know that I ever thought that I would graduate,” she said. “I just kept thinking I would take classes and it would never end up with a degree.”

But in January, Rhonda father’s cancer returned. She then decided she should try.

She first called Rachel to make sure it was OK with her.

“I was afraid she would feel like I was horning in on her big celebration,” Rhonda said.

She couldn’t have been more wrong. Rhonda said her daughter thought that would just be “the coolest thing.”

“Some people laugh. They’re like, ‘With your mom?'” she said. “But we’re really close, so to get to do something that not very many people get to do together, I think, is exciting.”

Rhonda, who has taken classes at Eastern since Fall 2004, transferred her classes into the BGS program in January. It accepted all her classes, and she had all the requirements to graduate.

That day, Rhonda applied for graduation.

A forgotten dream

Rhonda had forgotten about her dream she had in 1980 when she first started college – getting her bachelor’s.

She went to college after she graduated from high school and said it was just assumed that she would finish.

But she dropped out, got married and had a baby.

She then went to Parkland College and got her associate’s degree.

At that point, Rhonda said she never really thought she would go back to college.

That is, until her daughter started at Eastern.

Rachel said the whole family was excited for her mom when she first started talking about going back.

“It was always her and Dad coming to stuff for me and my sister, supporting us,” she said. “This gave us something else to support her in. Something to say, ‘Hey, do this. We can go to your stuff. What can we do for you?'”

A supportive team

Rachel said when her mom first started taking classes, all she talked about getting a 4.0 GPA. And she did.

“That’s all she still talks about,” Rachel said.

This is one of the accomplishments that Roundtable Media, the advertising agency where Rhonda works, is proud of.

“To be graduating with a 4.0 is an accomplishment at any age and doing so while working full-time is just spectacular,” said Janelle Niewinski, assistant media buyer at Roundtable Media.

Rhonda McConnell said Roundtable Media was so supportive of her while she took classes.

“Value of an education is very important to them,” she said. “They just stand behind all their employees and do whatever they can to help them achieve that goal.”

A changing relationship

Rachel said her mom now understands why she gets so stressed out about school.

“Your parents always give you advice, but since she’s doing it, she has that little bit more that she can say, ‘I’m doing this at the same time. We can do it. We’ll hold hands and walk across the stage if we have to,'” she said.

Rhonda said she feels supported having her daughter go through the graduation ceremony with her.

It shows that her daughter is not a young girl, but more of an equal, she said.

“I think it’s really a start of how our relationship will change. Of course, I will always be the mother and always be right,” Rhonda said with a laugh.

A proud mother

Rhonda is still having a hard time believing she is actually going to graduate.

“For me, I think it’s very surreal,” Rhonda said. “I don’t think I’ll believe it until I’m walking across the stage.”

Rachel has known for the past three or four years that she would graduate in May 2008, but Rhonda said she didn’t know for sure that she would be graduating until March.

Even though Rhonda is proud of her own accomplishments, she doesn’t think her graduating takes away anything from her daughter – or that her daughter graduating takes anything away from her.

“I really am almost – and maybe it’s the mother in me – more looking forward to watching her march,” she said.

“That’s been 22 years of my life that I’ve invested in this child, and to see her reach this marker in her life is pretty amazing, and I thing every parent feels that,” Rhonda said.

If something down the years comes up in her daughter’s life, Rhonda said she hopes her daughter can say, “If mom can go back to school and get her degree, than I can tackle this. I can do this project.”

“I am impressed,” Rhonda said of her daughter’s achievement. “(A bachelor’s degree) took me 28 years; she did it in five.”

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.