Doing it for my family!

So far, my blog on emerging adulthood has turned into one primarily dedicated to a discussion on higher education.

And really, it’s been a pretty biased one—I have been critiquing the institution right and left. (What is the benefit of college? Is it worth the costs? Does it really equate with adulthood and maturity?) Yadda yadda yadda.

So now to all of my readers, I must offer some sort of apology. I must seem like the world’s biggest opponent of higher education! Someone who can’t stand where she’s at, and who can’t wait to get out of it! When in reality, I am in college—and one that definitely has its faults (namely, tuition)—and yet I’m having a blast!

(Obviously, there are those G.E. classes on the Incas, or on English poetry and what not. I can live without those.) But generally, I’m learning a lot about myself, and having a fabulous time in doing so…Meeting the most interesting people, and having those infamous all nighters.

Not to mention, this is the undergraduate education I need in order to apply for med school!

And you know, I almost feel guilty about all of the critiquing I’ve been doing.  Because every time I’ve written something negative about higher education, I’m reminded of something that my mother used to tell my older sister and me. She was speaking about her own mother, and how in the years prior to her early death, she constantly emphasized the importance of education and how it can take you from any stage in life to the highest levels of success.

Because no matter what, you will always have your education.

And boy, could my mom take this to the next level… If you have an education, you will always be self-sufficient, and capable of making your own decisions. It will establish your independency for the future. And finally, one day, it will help you to provide for your family—something that every parent will do anything to accomplish.  

I think this is something that all second generation kids can relate too. For instance, in my family, both of my parents grew up in very humble households. My mother worked in the family shop—in between her university classes, and my father was the first in his family to finish high school. And after coming to America, they lived in New York Apartments infested with cockroaches, struggling to make ends meet all for the future family they would have.

And so now—knowing all that my parents have done for my sisters and me—I would love nothing more than to make them proud. To receive an education, so that I could be a more complete, and more knowledgeable person and that one day, I can provide for my parents when they are not able to anymore.

(Oh, and to also pay them back for my $200,000 college tuition debt!!! Eeeek.)