As a person who is going to be a first generation college student, my journey towards obtaining a higher education has been challenging to say the least. Neither my father or mother finished high school, but when I was very young, my mother, who struggled with alcoholism, left my father and I, and he has raised me by himself ever since. Over the course of my childhood, my father did everything in his power to make ends meet through working long hours and multiple jobs so that I could have the opportunities that he never had. Because of this, at an early age I learned to do without certain things and when I was old enough, I got a job of my own to help provide for myself and my father. As a result of these things, sometimes it was difficult to do well in school and other activities, but I always found a way to succeed through diligence and time management skills.
