After passing the bar exam, a California mom of four has gone viral for her celebratory happy dance at home wearing sweats and a head bandana, which was posted on social media.
For the past 10 years, mom Evelyn has been raising kids and working full time, yet she never gave up her dream of becoming a lawyer.
“My mom finished law school in 2011 and has been studying for the California Bar exam while raising 4 kids and working full time for the past 10 years,” Naeche captioned. “Today? SHE PASSED THE BAR!!!!!! THAT’S ESQUIRE NOW!”
In the video, the jubilant mom can be seen animated, dancing in front of a celebratory conference video call, before kissing a photograph of her late father and saying, “I did it for you! I know you are happy.”
And online viewers seemed to share in her joy, as the video quickly went viral, garnering some 49,000 likes and 8,500 retweets.
“I keep telling people, ‘You can’t give up,’” Evelyn says in the video. “So, I have to practice what I preach. Perseverance. You don’t give up trying until it happens!”
At the age of 18, Evelyn came to the United States with the dream of going to law school. She says she intended to return home to Nigeria after completing her degree, but life had other ideas.
She explained that her status as a foreign student complicated matters, and then her father had a stroke, making it difficult for him to send tuition money.
“Instead of pushing for, or waiting for him to keep sending money, it was decided that I would wait,” Evelyn said, adding that her father made her vow to never give up on her dream.
Then, “life happened,” and with a family to take care of, Evelyn’s dreams took a little longer to achieve than she’d first hoped.
But she never gave up.
“After I had my last child, I told my husband I have to do this,” she said. “I couldn’t settle. [It’s] something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Plus, her father passed away before he could see her finish law school.
“I never stopped. I promised him,” Evelyn recalled.
And her hard work paid off. After studying for 10 years, she passed the bar and can finally live out her dream of becoming a lawyer.
“I feel relieved,” she said. “I can sleep all night. I’m just relaxed, knowing I don’t have to study!”
Now, Evelyn is thinking of a career in criminal defense but says she has an “open door policy” on the type of work she does, so long as it helps people.
“If I can ... make a difference, that’s where I’m going to go,” Evelyn stressed.
