A 16 year old girl in a class full of high school seniors and a college professor stands by her desk with her head held high and proclaims, “I want to be a journalist.” The old man seated at the front of the classroom then lists the various forms of predatory danger she would be targeted with throughout this “possible” career choice. He warns her of all of the unmentionable threats she would fall victim to out on the field, especially a smaller, more vulnerable female like herself. He lists these factors not as a warning, but almost a mockery of this young woman’s dreams.

He says this to a girl that has been called out for her small stature her entire life, a young woman who has never met a female journalist, a child who knows the value of a college degree because she can count the number of college graduates she has talked to outside of a school classroom on one hand.

Perhaps if this girl’s mother hadn’t taught her to set her standards high, she would have considered this man’s warnings valid points to mull over while she was still young. Perhaps if her father had not encouraged her to receive a higher education, she would not have had the courage to stand in this community college classroom in the first place. Perhaps if her parents had not raised her to know that an adult’s opinion is not always right, she would have had no choice but to accept this man’s advice as a fact.

But her parents raised her to believe that not even the sky was the limit. That no matter how many voices tried to stifle the “improbable” desires she set for herself, it was her drive alone that was needed to prove them wrong. It was thanks to this constant pride in her every step towards her personal vision of greatness that she surpassed the restraints of every institution and unjust authority that stood in her way. It was this granted freedom and belief in her heart and her dreams that challenged borders and broke barriers.

When they were younger, her parents did not receive participation trophies for being the first generation in their family to graduate high school. They were not told as children that they could be anything they wanted to be. For every old man seated at the front of the classroom, there was no voice to counter his remarks. An adult’s word was final, never questioned. So when they were told they couldn’t, they didn’t.

In college, she met individuals who were raised like her, by parents who valued their children’s voices and believed in their hopes for the future. As a result, she now lives in a world that is not silenced in the face of injustice. She is alive in a time that dares to think her equal to her male counterpart, that acknowledges her skin color, and has the heart to look past it. She questions everything, grants no one respect simply because they demand it, listens to others as her parents did for her, and does what she can to continue standing.

Because she grew up with brown skin, a classification as the lesser sex, and no living proof that her dreams were possible, her parents did not have to teach her that in life, nothing is handed to you. Her lessons of hard work came from experience, and the harsh grind she witnessed others worse off than herself undergo. Even now as a college student, the burden of massive debt before she can even begin her life looms on her shoulders. But despite the gravity of her dues and those that claim she does not deserve her place in the institution she worked to attend, she knows she will graduate, because she was raised to believe that she is “entitled” to a chance at greatness.

Being born into a family of IV league alumni, or starting humbly as the first college student in her family would not calculate her value. Taking her first breath on either side of a river would not determine her potential. The pink or blue blanket that swaddled her as a newborn would not change her drive. The shade her skin tanned would not dull her beauty. The money in her bank account would never correlate with her qualifications. Above all else, she was raised to know that she was entitled to nothing, worthy of everything, with permission required from no one.