It’s typical for parents to stand in line for hours with a bouquet of flowers, sit through half a dozen speeches and watch hundreds of students receive their diploma before they see their own child make it to the stage.

But this year, Enjoli Harris-Carter didn’t attend Renton Technical College’s graduation ceremony only to see her 18-year-old son Elijah receive his high school diploma. She was on the other side of the arena, receiving her diploma as well.

Her story dates back to 1997, when she found out that she was pregnant with Elijah. Enjoli had moved and the transition wasn’t smooth.

“Things at home were very difficult,” she said. “So when I was thrust into that environment, I quickly declined academically. I really struggled integrating into the school. I had some health issues. We had family issues. We had a lot going on.”

When at age 17 she found out that she was pregnant, Enjoli dropped out of school to raise the baby on her own.

“My young adulthood was raising him and finding and maintaining work,” Enjoli said. “He was really sick when he was young. The first four years of his life was spent in hospitals and ER visits. He had a severe form of asthma and that kept him sick. It was a struggle maintaining employment and caring for him.”

She soon became pregnant with another son in 2001 and got married in 2003. However, that relationship turned out to be toxic and abusive.

“It ended up being a violent marriage. With the assistance of Domestic Abuse Women’s Network, we were able to be relocated from that situation because at that point, I had my children and he was the breadwinner,” she said. “Leaving that situation was difficult.”

As the years of abuse and trauma started to catch up with Enjoli, she started attending therapy. And somewhere along her slow and continued journey of healing, she started to awaken her passions.

“My dream has been to work with people in some realm of social service and counseling. I haven’t fine-tuned what it will look like yet, but definitely working and giving back to the community,” she said. “Due to my disabilities, it was something that I gave up on.”

As something in Ejoli stirred, she began researching programs and degrees that would help her attain her newly formed dream. That’s when she enrolled in RTC’s High School 21+, a program for adults aged 21 and older to receive their high school diploma.

Enjoli said that it’s taken a lot of work and to chart out her next steps, but that this diploma is just the next step in making a positive impact in her community. She remarried in 2009 and since has had two more kids.

For Elijah, watching his mother journey and persevere through all the challenges she was faced with has made him proud.

“I’m a big believer in perseverance and seeing things through,” he said. “So it’s been awesome to see my mom persevere through a lot of rough things that’s happened in life and still go out there and reach for her dreams and goals. I’m proud of her, and that’s weird because you don’t usually hear someone’s child being proud of their mom But it’s been a really awesome journey.”

The duo say that they’re close and that they’ve found a healthy balance of parenting and friendship.

“We like to have fun,” said Enjoli. “There’s a lot of laughter. We can be competitive. I can be insanely immature. So I love to embarrass him in front of his friends; it’s a hobby of mine. He gets irritated because his friends like to come over and hang out with me. It’s a very balanced relationship.”

Not only did Enjoli and Elijah get the chance or receiving their diplomas together, but they also shared the stage as the ceremony’s commencement speakers. They said that it was a “rigorous” feat since both of them are “terrified of public speaking.”

The two of them have big plans for the future. Enjoli plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Elijah received his high school diploma and associate’s degree in computer network technology, and he plans on pursuing a degree in network administration and security.

Graduating together wasn’t just another ceremony for these two. It was a victory song that celebrated years of sticking together and making it through the rough times.

“When you are a single parent, there is a bond that’s there unlike a traditional family dynamic because it is just the two of you,” said Enjoli. “There was a lot of highs and lows… but now, we get to do this together. That’s something special.”