At the beginning of 2016, before my final semester of college, my dad said: “I’ve been thinking about emailing your stupid guidance counselor and telling her you're a Dean’s List student now. Not get into college, my ass.”

According to my dad, my high school guidance counselor had told him: “We’re trying really hard to get Jillian into college.” Not a good college, but a college. She had implied she didn’t think I would be able to get into college at all, never mind the major institutions like UMass Amherst. Considering this is the same woman that wrote me a glowing recommendation letter, learning that stung a little.

I guess I should not have been too surprised. My own parents didn’t have a lot of faith in me. I didn’t get out much in high school. I tried extracurricular activities, like book club and Youth Court, but within a year or two, those things were gone.

By junior year, I would go to school and then go home, and that was my life. I spent most of my time in my bedroom reading. Naturally, my parents saw this and it hindered their view of me. What they didn’t understand was that I didn’t have any close friends. People were nice to me, except I wasn’t getting invited to birthday parties or to hang out after school. They never directly said it, but I could hear them talking through my bedroom walls. I am fairly certain they expected me to run home every weekend when I started college or even be a victim of an assault.

I know that, because my mother once said to me, when I was 16: “You would never survive in the projects. You would be raped every five minutes.”

By the way, I was never assaulted, not sexually nor in any other way. I never went home for a casual weekend all four years I was in school. I felt safer at Curry College than I ever did in my high school. Given recent events, I understand if some of you don’t agree with me. But the reason I felt so safe is because of people like those who participated in the protests, standing up to the hate. Everyone looked out for each other.

Truthfully, I was not scared of college. I wanted to leave Taunton and, if I didn’t then, I knew I never would. I didn’t belong, and there were better things for me elsewhere. Going to college was my escape, a chance for me to start over and truly find myself.

And I did.

First off, I got into a college. Curry College might not be Ivy League, but it is still a respectable institution. I got a good education.

In my senior year, I was inducted into two honor societies: Lambda Pi Eta, the communications national honor society, and the Alexander Graham Bell Honor Society. Again, I was not actively trying to get into either program. In fact, it was hard for me to process.

After I received the letter inviting me to Lambda Pi Eta, I was having dinner with my friend Ben at the Student Center. The conversation went something like this:

Ben: “So, anything new?”

Jillian: “No, nothing’s interesting going on.”

Ben: “You sure?”

Jillian: “Well…I was invited to join Lambda Pi Eta, the communications National Honor Society.”

Ben: “Jillian…that is not nothing.”

The highlight of 2016 was my play, Family Jewels. In December, inside the playbill for the winter production, Curry College Theater announced they were accepting submissions for New Plays Festival 2016, an annual event where the actors perform student-written plays. I had my script from a class I had taken a previous semester and always meant to go back to it. Now, I had an excuse. I thought: “What do I have to lose?”

I made the appropriate edits and sent it in, except I did not tell anyone what I was doing. If Family Jewels was not accepted, I wanted to be the only one feeling the disappointment. Then, in January, I received an email from the director of Family Jewels.

I can’t even begin to describe the excitement I felt in that moment and in the months after, watching Family Jewels come to life thanks to three incredibly talented student actors under the guidance of a great director. My family and friends were proud of me. But, more importantly, I was proud of myself.

I graduated college with honors: Magna Cum Laude.

During Senior Week, I received an email from the Registrar’s office that I had to pick up a gold cord to wear with my cap and gown to signify I was graduating with honors. I didn’t know I was Magna until graduation day, when I saw it written under my name. Did I aim to graduate with such high honors? No, I didn’t. I earned it because I worked hard. I went to class and I did my work. I did my best. The day was filled with tears, but it was also filled with pride.

I beat everyone’s expectations of me. Both my aunt and my grandmother admitted they had had their doubts when I started school, although my parents haven’t, at least not directly. My aunt said: “You surprised everyone.”

That is likely the best feeling in the world.