Listen Live
Get Up Erica Featured Video
CLOSE
Black woman holding and comforting baby daughter

Source: JGI/Tom Grill / Getty

Nekhidia Harris may be small in size but she doesn’t let that hold her back. At birth Harris was given just three days to live; but she’s now 24-years-old and just graduated from Medgar Evers College with honors in Brooklyn.

“I was like, oh my gosh, this is really, really happening,” she told ABC 7. “Oh my gosh, I thank God every day.”

Text “ERICA” to 52140 to join the Get Up! Mornings w/ Erica Campbell mobile club for exclusive news. (Terms and conditions).

And so do her parents. Harris was born with many issues, including brittle bones, and she’s undergone numerous surgeries and had dozens of fractures.

“I feel so excellent,” she said. “After the hard work, and sleepless nights sometimes, all-nighters, it feels really good that I accomplished my Bachelor’s in social work.”

She’s about the size of a toddler but her parents say she is and will do great things.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

“She lights up a room,” mom Dasline Harris said. “No matter what darkness is in the room, she lights up that room.”

“No one has shunned her,” dad Michael Harris said. “Nobody treats her differently, because they see her as tall as they are.”

And that may be because of a bit of advice her father once gave her.

“Use my brain as my height, and I’ve stuck with that,” she said. “And I surely have used my brain as my height.”

SEE ALSO: High School Graduate Who Received 139 College Acceptance Letters Is Headed To Xavier University Of Louisiana

Harris already has a non-profit that she uses to motivate others with disabilities, especially children.

“I like to help people, and especially children,” she said. “I also have a voice, and I love children. They gravitate to me, so I want to help them in every way I can.”

She’s planning to continue her education by earning her Masters at York College.

Graduation Season: Inspirational Caps That Will Motivate You [PHOTOS]
African descent college student at college graduation.
17 photos

ALSO TRENDING ON GETUPERICA.COM:

Woman Given Three Days To Live At Birth Graduates Medgar Evers College [Video]  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com