Dear First Gen College Students,
Congratulations! Being the first in your family to go to college is a major milestone for your family name, and you should be nothing but proud of what you're doing and where you will go (yes, even if you're going to a community college — it's still a degree)!
Now, in my case, college has always been a huge topic of discussion. In fact, I can remember being in middle school researching colleges, and that's when I decided BGSU was the school for me. In high school, I looked at quite a few others, they never caught my attention like BG did from the start.
At first, I was upset with the way things were looking. I didn't get into the hall I wanted, I was going to have to have a roommate because there simply wasn't space for me to have a double as a single, and my room is on the fourth floor of my hall — I'm scared of heights.
I came to BGSU knowing (and loving) my roommate, but I wasn't sure about the rest of it. Every doubt and worry I had been bottling up inside melted away watching my mom begin to unpack my room on move-in day. There was no time for my mom to cry because she was smiling too much. She couldn't stop rambling about how she wished she could've had the experience I was having. The bathroom-sharing, roommate-having, too-high-off-the-ground experience I had been dreading for months, she was swooning over.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in the whole "just because someone is worse off than you doesn't make your struggles invalid" thing, but I couldn't help it; I had to embrace this situation I was in and make the absolute most out of it. Sure, it wasn't what I had been planning for years on end, but I finally made it. I dodged the bullet that is statistics, the one where it says that when your parents didn't have something, it was typical for their children to also not have that thing, and I have seen it run in my family for decades. But, I had the opportunity to travel out of state and attend the university of my dreams, and here I was, unsure I would be able to handle something as little as sharing a bathroom with other girls.
So here I am a few days after move-in, hanging out in the lounge with girls from the floor. College doesn't feel real yet, but I can't imagine having anyone else by my side on the fourth floor, both in the dorm and in the bathroom.
Wishing you good luck and a safe year,
Adria
