It’s the day all parents dream about for their children from their first day of school. The day their beloved student goes off to college. Students are always asked what they want to be when they grow up. From a very early age, my answer was always the same. I want to become a teacher.

Coming from a family with not much money to be spared, I always had my doubts about going to college. When thinking about the money it would take, and the debt I would be in after I finished, I was never truly sure it was worth it. With my father’s unemployment check and my mother’s check, there was barely enough money to cover all the bills and groceries. I knew college would have to be paid for by me and by the grants, loans and hopefully scholarships I acquired. This was a scary thought. It took a lot of thinking and a lot more encouragement and support from others before I finalized my decision that yes, I would go to college.

My decision was an important decision, not only because college matters but because I would be the first kid in my immediate family to go to college and hopefully the first in my family to graduate from college.

Growing up, my mom always told me she wanted better for me than what she and my father could give. She said to me, “You should go to college and establish a career,” and she always talked about how much she hated not having enough money for the extra things. These statements were my biggest encouragement to go to college. Although I’m grateful for everything I’ve been given, I want my kids to have all of that plus more.

At the beginning of my senior year, I filled out and sent in my application to the college I wanted to go to most. Along with the application I also sent in my transcript and SAT scores. It took a lot of time picking my number one choice. At first I wanted to go to Hawaii Pacific University, then I decided on California Polytechnic State University and finally after cutting those from the list I decided the school for me was the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. After applying, about a month went by before I received a letter. The letter was one I’d been waiting for since making my decision to go to college. I held in my hands, my acceptance letter to the University of New Mexico.

This accomplishment was probably my biggest up to date. I was worried about being accepted because at the beginning of my high school career I messed up. I fell behind in some classes and had to play catch up in the next year. I was worried that colleges would look at that and think I just didn’t care enough. The truth was that I did care and I wanted more than anything to succeed and become something I could be proud of.

Being accepted was the easy part. Up to date, I’ve payed for my application fee and housing pre-payment with checks acquired from my job at Quizno’s. The easy parts are finished. Now, I just have to get there.