Zoe Fowler: This day is to celebrate us and our achievements

Hello, Class of 2026, and welcome to your long-anticipated graduation ceremony. I’d like to begin by first giving thanks to all of the family members, supporters, faculty, administration, and last but not least, ECC's graduating class for being here today.

Each and every one of us has accomplished something wonderful together, and every person in this room carries a story that helped them get here. We should be VERY proud of that.

My name is Zoe, and I am graduating from ECC's nursing program, and I couldn’t be more proud.

To be honest, I truly never thought that I would be in this room to receive such an honor alongside you all.

Many of you began working on your degrees within the last 2-4 years, or maybe even LONGER, if you’re anything like me.

You see, I began MY college journey here at ECC in 2014.

Yes, you heard that right. 

Twelve years ago, I set foot on this campus as a scared, self-conscious, and undecided 17-year-old high school adolescent.

My high school experience was very challenging. Can anyone here relate? 

My high school journey was split between TWO. DIFFERENT. STATES. I moved here from Oklahoma the summer before my junior year to live with my mom. At the time, I was trying to escape a situation that felt too big to face— something that became the first of MANY obstacles I would soon have to overcome.

At my new school in Illinois, I was fortunate to have supportive teachers who recognized the challenges I was struggling to navigate from the beginning, such as major depression, anxiety, self-harm, and eventually a voluntary hospitalization.

They offered me an opportunity that had potential: by senior year, I was given the option to leave high school one semester early, but, with one condition [PAUSE]: that I complete my second semester of senior AP English online.

That opportunity gave me the chance to enroll at ECC concurrently. I could work on a college degree while still working on my high school diploma online.

Sounds pretty good, RIGHT? Leave high school early? I mean, come on.

However, I soon learned that I was NOT ready for such an opportunity.

I thought that jumping ahead and enrolling in college would somehow ERASE the parts of myself I was struggling to accept. I thought achievement would finally make me feel worthy.

Essentially, I was enrolled for ALL THE WRONG REASONS.

I didn’t finish the degree I intended to at that time.

On the other hand, I didn’t technically drop out of my classes either.

I actually just stopped going to class, which is even worse and not a suitable option for anyone. Like seriously. Don’t do that ever. You’ll still get a bill. Ask me how I know. 

I didn’t ask for help. I didn’t talk to any advisors about my feelings. I didn’t ask any of the right questions. I simply stopped attending classes. I also, unfortunately, stopped working on that senior English class.

Every missed class made it harder to come back. Eventually, embarrassment turned into silence, and silence turned into disappearing.

I went from feeling on top of the world —a fleeting moment— to giving up everything because I felt stuck and despondent.

I was now not only a COLLEGE dropout, but a high school dropout as well. And those classes I stopped going to, would one day affect my cumulative GPA here, and ALMOST risk my ability to receive financial aid for this degree I have earned today.

The reason I share this with you today is because every person sitting here in this room has carried something heavy. Maybe it was grief, failure, financial stress, self-doubt, illness, loneliness, pressure, or simply the fear that you weren’t capable enough to make it this far.

Some of us may have had a great support system to help us through, and some of us may have felt like we were figuring it out alone.

But no matter what that challenge was, big or small, no matter what kind of support system we had or did not have, we, all of us, have kept going. And that’s what today is about.

This day is to celebrate us and our achievements. This day is to celebrate YOU. Be proud of that.

Be grateful for any kind of support you have received throughout this journey, whether from this institution as a whole, your professors, scholarship donors, your family, or the friends you might have made along the way. The list could really go on and on if you think about it.

But please don’t forget to make an effort to be grateful to yourself, because there were days nobody saw how hard you were fighting just to keep going.

And show kindness to yourself when things get hard again, because they will, in some ways. That’s life. That’s part of the journey that got you here. But don’t ever condemn yourself for your own mistakes or shortcomings, and don’t let them convince you to stop.

You have NO IDEA what your future may hold, and what challenges you will soon overcome.

But you will. You will overcome.

Because if MY story proves anything, it’s this:

I have overcome self-doubt.

I have overcome setbacks.

I have overcome the moments where it felt easier to give up entirely [BRIEF PAUSE], than to keep going.

And standing here TODAY, I know this:

we didn’t just survive this journey.

We grew through it.

We were changed by it.

And despite everything that tried to stop us, we overcame it.

Congratulations, class of 2026 graduates. We kept going. And today, we made it.