Simply Put by Danielle

Simply Put by Danielle - November 2016 Scholarship Essay

“Simply Put”
By: Danielle Grace

What would I be most thankful for when I go to college and why, simply put is just the opportunity to attend.
Let me start by telling you a little story about my mother. Her mother (my grandmother) was born into a family of poor farmers, twelve children in all, taught from an early age GOD, family, and country values. Education was not at the top of the list, so her mother did not even finish high school as she dropped out to help take care of her siblings and to work the farm. She met her husband (my grandfather) who shared a similar background, however, he grew up as a carpenter and also never finished high school, he dropped out to help care for his family. So this couple’s (my grandparents) greatest desire for the children they shared were for them to graduate from high school, an opportunity neither of them had. Three of the four children finished high school "by the skin of their teeth" and went straight to work, but one (my mother) had a dream in her heart, to not only finish high school but also to attend college. With this strong desire in her heart, my mother went to her father and requested to go to college, however his response was to say you need to go to work but “go to college, if you can afford it”. My grandfather refused to give her financial information she needed to apply for assistance to go to college. So through self-determination and drive, she worked full time and was able to attend college for approximately two years before giving in to financial pressures and started to work just to support herself. However, she continued to have the desire to complete a college education. Years later she met my father, got married, had my older brother, and my mom decided to stay home and take care of my brother. After a year, her desire to finish her education surfaced and she talked with my father about her dream to complete college. He supported her decision and she went back to college with a husband, child, and home mortgage. Even with all the responsibility she had at home, she waited tables at a local restaurant to help pay the bills while in college. She finished in four years and even got into a competitive program to achieve her life-long dream of breaking the cycle within her family. Now there was a college graduate in her family. My mother as a non-traditional student, was the first person in her immediate and extended family to attend college and graduate. Thus, college offers me an opportunity to change a cycle of generations that did not attend college.
So you ask me “what I will be most thankful for when I go to college and why?” Simply put, I am thankful just to have the opportunity to attend college because not everyone does. I will be thankful to continue the tradition my mother set for her family. My brother and I will be college graduates and my desire is to take this a step further and get my doctorate in physical therapy. I will be thankful to show my mother that the lessons she has taught me during my life so far have not fallen on deaf ears. I will be thankful to change the upcoming generations in my family tree and demonstrate how family history is fluid, anyone can achieve their dreams with hard work, self-determination, and a “never give up, never give in” attitude, this is what my mother has taught me and for all this, I am thankful.