You are in the process of changing your life and changing your family. You are a first generation college student. I don’t know if you hear it as often as you deserve to, but I am so proud of you. I’m proud of everything you’ve done and everything you’ve yet to do.

There have been a million opportunities for you to give up and not go to college. It’s certainly not easy. Everyone who’s ever even thought about going to college knows how difficult and time consuming filling out the FAFSA is, not to mention application after application for schools and scholarships. You, though, didn’t have family members who had done it before to help you. You figured it all out yourself. After high school, people doubted that you would succeed in college, but you’re killing it. You are doing great in your classes, because of the hard work you put in. You even had to get a full-time job to afford things that some of your friends could afford with parental help. College is hard, working full time is hard, and doing both at once can seem impossible at times. But it isn’t for you.

You haven’t let anything stop you. Every time you get knocked down, you get back up and keep fighting for the education that you know you deserve. I know you grew up always dreaming of graduating from college, but you were never sure if that dream would become a reality. Well, you made it your own reality. Social class is something that statistically stays pretty stable through generations, and the fact that you’re pulling yourself up and out of yours speaks more for your strength than you can possibly understand.

I know your family doesn’t always support you, especially since none of them have gone to college. They see it as a waste of money since they’re doing just fine without ever going. They don’t see a point in putting yourself in debt when you can live a perfectly normal life without going to college. I’m not saying that going to college is the only option or even the best option for everybody. There are many options for people besides college – entering the workforce right away, going to trade school, etc. These are excellent, respectable positions. We need construction workers, fast food workers, cashiers, and all of the other jobs that don’t require a degree. It would have been super easy for you to take one of these other routes, a route with less stress, cost, and future debt, but you didn’t. You saw a future for yourself that included graduation from college.

You see the millions of opportunities you’ll have after graduating.

You see the job you’ll enjoy going to every day.

You see a better life for yourself than the one most of your family members have.

Because of that vision, you’re going to change the world someday.

Lots of love,

Another first generation college student