As a part of our "Why I'm First" campaign, please share what it means for you to be a First Generation college student?
My grandparents moved to California from Oklahoma in the 1940s following the Dust Bowl. Most of the children in their families did not even complete elementary school, let alone high school. When they had children in turn, college was never a plan, and most of them, my own mom included, also did not finish high school. My mom bounced around for a bit before joining the army where she eventually received her GED. Knowing she wanted better for me, my mom pushed me towards college. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the knowledge or the resources to effectively set me on that path. Instead, when I finished high school, I went straight into the work force while writing whenever I could. I’ve always struggled with mental health, and bouts of poor mental health correlate directly with my ability to create. When I hit an all-time low in 2018 and was unable to produce any writing, I decided it was finally time for me to go back to school. When I made that decision, I had no idea it would lead me to where I am now, working on a historical romance novel as my capstone in the University Honors program at a University of California. To be here at UC Riverside after a journey through the struggles of poverty and the chasms of depression means the world to me, and I could not be prouder to say that in less than a year, I will be the first person in my entire family history to receive a Bachelor’s Degree.
