I am lucky. On January 8, 2016 I committed to the University of North Carolina Greensboro, after five months of the college application process. It seemed as if sometimes people were confused as to why I was so excited to have committed, as to why I applied to so many places, as to why receiving scholarships was like winning the lottery. I was lucky to have committed to this university because I would be a first generation college student.

All throughout high school, I heard so many kids in and outside of school talking about how they were so excited for college. I heard how they were going to be able to go wherever they wanted, whether it be in state or out of state, private or public. I heard kids talk about where their parents went and hear them say, "Oh, I have a better chance of getting in because my ___ went there." It always made me feel a little bit of an outsider. Sometimes I even felt looked down upon. None of the other girls were first generation that I knew of, and not very many of them were paying for their education like I was. It felt almost isolated at times. I often wished that there were other kids I could relate to, someone who knew what it felt like to be going into this feeling almost alone, because no one in your family knew what to except and neither did you. Not like it was a bad thing that these kids were blessed with the ability to go anywhere they wanted regardless of location or price, but I felt like they were missing something. Not everyone has that option. Why? Because some kids truly do have to pay for their education themselves, and if you don't have a lot of scholarship money, private or out of state colleges tend to have a pretty large price tag.

I know now that I have to value my education because not everyone gets to go to college. There are so many people who go to college and slack off, don't do their work or flunk out because all they did was have fun. It's important to me that while I'm in college to have fun, but to also keep myself in check and remember that I'm here to learn and prepare myself for my career. A career that I can obtain because I had the opportunity to go to school. An opportunity that is so valuable, yet we often take it for granted.