To The Parents Of A First Generation College Student:
We understand that it has to be hard to watch your son or daughter leave Smalltown, USA, for higher education and the pursuit of the dreams you always told us to follow. We understand that it must be frustrating to go days and weeks without hearing from us. We realize it's probably weird to not know who our friends are, or to not know where we are every moment of the day. There's a lot we honestly understand about you (even when we seem caught up in our own little college life), but there's things we want you to understand about us. You haven't been on this journey that we're on. That's why we're called "first generation" college students. It's hard for us to adjust because there's no one to turn to who can exactly identify with our struggles and we sometimes feel misunderstood.
College is not all fun and games.
By the looks of our bank accounts and Instagram posts, you probably think that the majority of our time is spent hanging out with friends, going to the movies, late night trips to Taco Bell, and not-so-study sessions, but in reality, college is a lot of work. Our classes and coursework consume most of our time and thoughts. Although we do find joy in our friendships and experiences at school, we work like college is our job, because in this stage of life, it is.
We aren't happy about leaving you.
It may seem like we're having the time of our lives away from home, away from you, but don't take our happiness personally. Believe us, a lot of the time we're wishing we could be with you, away from our responsibilities as a student. We miss home, and it's weird to think about our families being together and living life without us.
We just want encouragement.
When we call you and complain about the amount of work we have this semester, or want to cry about a bad grade, don't tell us to work harder or do better. Just say, "You can do it." The 10 minutes we took to call you may be one of the only breaks we had that day, and by mentioning grades/class we're really fishing for someone to say, "I believe in you." It's annoying when parents assume that our classes are easy and that making good grades is no difficult task. You haven't done this before, and neither have we. You don't know the work it takes, and we're still on a journey of figuring it out.
Thank you so much.
We wouldn't have made it to college without your constant support and efforts to keep us on the right track for a bright future. When we look back, we're thankful for, what we thought was nagging in high school, to make good grades and to stay focused on being the first ones in the family to pursue the road less traveled.
Sincerely,
First Generation College Students
