KEY POINTS:
Kyla Moore was a pregnant teenager the first time she left high school.
Graduating with a science degree as proud son Lyon looked on yesterday, the 31-year-old told how she had no regrets about going back to class a decade after she left - or of the four years of hard slog that followed.
"It's the best thing I ever did," she said.
Ms Moore is one of more than 1000 people who will graduate from Massey University's Auckland campus this week.
University of Auckland graduations start next month, while Auckland University Technology held its ceremony last month.
For Ms Moore, the capping ceremony was the latest triumphant step in a long journey.
She left Rutherford College when she became pregnant with Lyon, now 13, in her last year of school.
A solo mother, she later trained to be a chef but - despite parents Peter and Lynne Moore helping out - the late nights and weekend shifts did not suit the demands of having a child.
During the four years as Colwill School's "lunch lady" that followed, Ms Moore decided she wanted to be a teacher.
"My highest qualification was, I think, fifth-form science from back in the early 90s," she said.
So when Lyon was 10, Ms Moore went back for a year to her old high school, which has an adult student programme.
"It was weird - I was in a class with 16-year-olds. My form room was the adult students but I was sitting in a class with sixth-formers."
She started university the following year. Despite wanting to give up after a rocky first semester, she studied human nutrition and sports science for the next three years.
Although she got her degree yesterday, Ms Moore hasn't escaped lectures.
She is training as a secondary teacher at the University of Auckland's education faculty, and expects to graduate again next year.
