“Take one step forward if you will be the first person in your family to graduate college.” I took a step forward, expecting a few others in the line to do the same. After all, this was a common category and it wasn’t unusual for my peers to have undergone a similar struggle, being the first in their family to attend college, right? Wrong. I was the only person to take a step forward on that line. Out of over 50 of my peers, I was the only first-generation college student. I felt my face flush red with embarrassment. I wasn’t embarrassed of my parents or my grandparents not being college-educated. I was embarrassed because, at that moment, I realized that the people around me were not my peers. They all came from homes with higher incomes. They all came from homes with better opportunities. They all came from homes where getting accepted into college was the standard, rather than one of the biggest accomplishments of their lifetime. Although many of them were my friends, calling us “peers” implied that we were in the same demographic, which, at that moment, I discovered was not the case. I want to highlight the two people who have made it possible for me to achieve the great feat of college acceptance, despite it being against the odds: my father and my mother. My father was one of four siblings in a family that couldn’t afford that many children. While they weren’t necessarily poor, they certainly didn’t flourish in money. They lived a frugal lifestyle, so college was never even on the table for my dad’s family. Despite not being college-educated, my father has done his best to make his way in the world. He’s been working his way up the ladder at a powerplant about an hour from our home, often working back-to-back overtime shifts so that my family doesn’t struggle in the way that his family did. My mother was an only child who left home at 18. She, too, has made her way in life as best she could. She bounced from job to job, often working two or three at a time to keep up with rent. After my brother was born, she left the workforce to look after her two young children, leaving us to live in a single-income household of four people. Nonetheless, I’m still grateful for her decision to be present while raising my brother and me. She raised us to have drive, ambition, and passion for all that we do, and to know that we can do anything we set our minds to. My parents are the only reason I have even made it this far in life. Upon being accepted into college, I promised myself that I wouldn’t just repay them one day, but I would give them the life they deserve. My mother has always dreamed of a summer home in Cape Cod, and my father has always wanted a fancy boat for fishing. With a college education, I can make that happen. They’ve sacrificed so much for me to achieve my dream of attending college. They gave me a fighting chance in a world where having a degree is the standard, not the exception. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I want to go for my doctorate, something that I never thought would be attainable if not for my parents. With that, I’ll be able to get a job where I can afford to give my parents, who gave so much of their lives for me, the life they always dreamed of.