Darleen Tareeq with her daughter Ameerah juggles being a mother with work and being a student. Pictured here with other St. Paul College students

By Darleen Tareeq
Saint Paul College

I wake up to the alarm clock blazing–it’s 6:30 a.m. I get up and get myself ready–it’s time to wake up my daughter Ameerah. Some mornings are better then others–get ready, eat, rush, here comes the bus. Then we are both off to school–her to kindergarten and me to nursing school. I stay at school until 2, and then it’s off to work. I call my mom at 4 to make sure she got Ameerah off the bus. I work until 7:30, and then go pick up my daughter from grandma. We get home and it’s time to unwind for the night. I make myself some kind of dinner–Ameerah has already eaten with her grandma. Then it’s time to get her ready for bed. Take a bath, brush her teeth, get her pajamas on and put her to bed–it’s 9 o’clock. I take out my books and try to get some studying done; sometimes I even manage to put my books away instead of falling asleep on them. The next day we start all over again. This is my week.

The best thing that ever happened in my life was the birth of my daughter. I decided to go to college for my daughter. I was working when I had her and the month she was born my health insurance went up by over $200. I was basically working for health insurance. I really didn’t know what to expect going back to college. Thankfully, I have had a lot of support from my mom and family, which has allowed me to be a full-time student since 2007.

I have also been involved in student government since 2008. I got involved in student government because I didn’t like the way things were going on my campus. The next step was when I got involved in the Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA). I really have a passion for this organization because the struggle I go through everyday would have never happened if college would have been more accessible to me at a younger age. Through MSCSA, I get to advocate for not only myself, but every other student in the state, and also for my daughter and her future.

There are some coping skills I would like to share that have helped me be successful in my college experience. Number one is asking for help. Don’t take on things you can’t do alone or that are too much to handle.

Take care of yourself. Get enough sleep–your day will end up being twice as hard if you don’t get enough sleep. Try to eat right–make good food choices. It is very easy to eat lots of junk food when you are in school. It is cheap, easy and accessible, but it’s very unhealthy and can really hamper your success.

Let things go. I used to worry so much about everything. But I started to give myself a worry hour, which is one hour a day that I allow myself to worry. When that hour rolls around the not-so-important worries seem to be forgotten. I give myself time to plan goals that will shift these worries. I read a quote that keeps things in perspective for me: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”

Ideally, I would not have been a single mom through college, but it is possible. Every time I think of being away from my daughter, or what we have both sacrificed for me to go to college, I know that I am doing this for us–our future and our happiness. I really hope that it’s me and other strongly educated women that she takes on as her role models. That is all I ever wanted since the day she was born–to be somebody she looks up to.