Education has always been important to Carolyn Patton, but life always seemed to “get in the way” every time she tried to finish her bachelor’s degree. The single mom was so busy working to support her two children that she repeatedly put her own education goals on hold, abandoning her college program on two separate occasions over the years.
教育对卡洛琳·巴顿来说一直很重要，但每次她试图完成学士学位时，生活似乎总是 “碍事”。单身妈妈忙于工作来养活她的两个孩子，以至于她一再搁置自己的教育目标，多年来在两个不同的场合放弃了她的大学课程。
When he was just 5 years old, her son Immanuel Patton noticed her struggling to get her degree, and he made a promise to help her. “I remember I just told my mom...one day, it’s gonna be you and me,” Immanuel said. “We’re going to get our degrees at the same time.” Those words proved to be prophetic for the mom-and-son duo, who recently walked across the stage at the university to collect their bachelor’s degrees together!
当他只有5岁的时候，她的儿子伊曼纽尔·巴顿注意到她正在努力获得学位，他答应帮助她。“我记得我当时告诉我妈妈…… 总有一天，会是你和我，” 伊曼纽尔说。“我们将同时获得学位。” 这些话被证明是对一对母子二人的预言，他们最近走上大学的舞台，一起获得了学士学位!
“That promise, he never allowed it to die,” said Carolyn. “It was continuously, ‘You know, mom, we’re gonna do this.’” Their path to graduation wasn’t easy, but Immanuel stayed true to his promise and helped his mother along the way. The two hold two associate’s degrees each, so in fall of 2020 they enrolled together in bachelor-level online courses. They both found the classes challenging, but Immanuel stepped up as the cheerleader his mother needed. “I said, ‘Ma, you’ve got to keep it going. I know you want to stop. We got to keep going,’” Immanuel recalled. “The main thing was just trying to get everything lined up and stay on top of her as well stay on top of myself.”
“那个承诺，他从不让它消失，”卡罗琳说。“他们一直在说，‘妈妈，你知道吗，我们要这样做。’”他们的毕业之路并不平坦，但伊曼纽尔信守了自己的承诺，一路帮助母亲。两人各有两个副学士学位，所以在2020年秋天，他们一起参加了学士水平的在线课程。他们都觉得课程很有挑战性，但伊曼纽尔挺身而出，成为母亲所需要的啦啦队长。“我说，‘妈妈，你一定要坚持下去。我知道你想停下来。我们必须继续前进，’”伊曼纽尔回忆道。“最主要的事情就是把一切都安排好，控制住她，也控制住我自己。”
It took the Pattons two years to finish their bachelor’s degrees, hers in humanities and Immanuel’s in public safety administration. Carolyn plans to stay at her job as a coordinator, and Immanuel has accepted a job at university to help other students succeed in college, too.
巴顿母子花了两年时间完成了学士学位，她的是人文学科，伊曼纽尔的是公共安全管理专业。卡洛琳计划继续做协调员，伊曼纽尔也接受了一份帮助其他学生在大学取得成功的工作。
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