“I’m First generation.” This sounds great, so don’t get me wrong, but have you ever thought about what comes with that phrase? Being the first generation is so much more than the first person in your family to go to college. This means using your spare time to look for colleges, examining courses you could possibly take, checking out scholarships and other resources that will support you along your journey, talking to the financial aid office, and visiting colleges to see which one is the right fit for you. This is a familiar process for all prospective college students, but it takes longer for first-generation students since we have no one from our family to ask for their assistance during the process of applying to college; thus, we need to figure it out by ourselves through trial and error. Being the first means you have to do all the heavy work without someone to help you throughout the process. In my situation, I was constantly worrying about getting perfect scores in high school while maintaining a strong GPA, all in an effort to prove myself to be an “intelligent female student” who can attend college. But I was also worried about the financial aspect. The phrase “you can go anywhere to college,” is not true for students who come from low-income families. We have to look at what we will be sacrificing in order to attend college; we also need to consider where we will get the money to pay for it, knowing that our parents barely have enough money. This is just the beginning of the process. When you get to college, you have to deal with so much more than you expected. In my personal experience, not only do I have to be a great scholar, but I also need to be the perfect Mexican daughter, sister, friend, and leader. Oh, and if there’s time, I also need to practice a bit of self-care. Having to balance all these roles (the different hats I wear) all at once while also enjoying life and having time for myself can be very difficult when being the first generation. We can’t really ask anyone for tips or advice on what we should do and not do, which makes it ten times longer to have a great routine. We will have to go through trial and error and we will be the ones who future generations will ask for advice.
