College is what you make of it: a first-gen perspective by Isabella

College is what you make of it: a first-gen perspective by Isabella - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

I have always known a college education to be important- more than that, I have always known it to be a privilege, one that I wished I could have for myself. Both of my parents did not have the opportunity to attend college- my father was an immigrant struggling to adjust to a new life in America, and both my mother and my father did not have the financial resources to spend thousands and thousands of dollars per year. From a young age, they made it known to me that I could pursue a different path- after all, they had sacrificed everything to provide my siblings and I with the opportunities that they never had. They wanted me to attend college, and it was something that our entire family would view as a milestone.

To me, attending college represents so many things: socioeconomic mobility, the making of success from sacrifice, making my parents and myself proud, and above all, the idea that being a first-generation student is not a burden. Even if I feel like I’m starting a hundred steps behind everyone else, there is hope, and that is all the motivation I need.

That being said, college is not the automatic symbol of success. There are so many routes to a satisfactory life, and the equation isn’t as simple as “did you attend college or not?”. A student privileged enough to go to a top-tier private school who still chooses to reject studying in favor of partying is far less destined for success than a worker who stopped at high school and is still working day and night to find their own version of success. I look at my own parents and I see that starting this new life in America and allowing me to attend college is an astronomical achievement that resulted without a college degree.