Back to school! Bekah Martinez is excited about returning to college at the University of California Irvine. Her return to her studies comes after she welcomed her first child in February with her boyfriend, Grayston Leonard.
“Swipe to see going back to school 5 months pregnant vs. with an almost-8-month-old baby. Hopefully, this is my last first day of college ever,” she said, captioning a post of two comparison shots. “This Bachelors degree has been seven years in the making and I’m ready to get this s–t over with.”
Martinez, 24, led her post with a pic of her wearing a grey UC Irvine sweatshirt as she held up her almost 8-month-old daughter, Ruth Ray De La Luz. The snap that followed was a throwback photo of the Bachelor alum smiling in the same sweatshirt while sporting a baby bump.
Martinez enrolled at UC Irvine after graduating from high school, attending the school as an English major. She dropped out of the West Coast university with plans to finish and earn her degree. However, she ended up being cast on The Bachelor’s 22nd season in 2017, where she became a fan favorite while competing for Arie Luyendyk Jr.
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In September 2018, Martinez opened up about going back to school while pregnant in a tell-all YouTube video. She revealed what motivated her to continue her studies, adding that it had “always been a goal for me to finish and graduate at some point.”
“I actually decided I was going to go back to school when I found out I was pregnant,” she said. “It was one of the first things I thought. I was like, ‘You know what? I need to bite the bullet and re-enroll.’”
Martinez continued by sharing the backstory behind her pulled enrollment, adding: “I attended UC Irvine for two years. I dropped out three years ago. I was going through, like, just a really rough time. I’d gone through a really bad breakup, didn’t really have any friends on campus. It was just like a really, really bad time in my life and I felt like I needed to go back home and kind of, like, reset and recuperate. So I moved back to Fresno for, like, nine months and then moved to L.A. after.”
In returning to UC Irvine, Martinez opted to pursue an art degree instead of English because she “didn’t really take classes towards my major.”
News of Martinez’s return to school after welcoming Ruth followed the celebration of her beau’s 30th birthday on Saturday, September 28.
“A day late because my phone is broken (don’t buy the iPhone X lol) but just had to say happy, happy birthday to my darling @pipyopi,” she wrote via Instagram, captioning a pic of the couple with their daughter. “You’re THIRTY you old man!! I love you infinitely. You’ve made my dreams come true. I feel like anything is possible when we’re together.”