Personal Narrative: My First Generation College Student

As a first generation college student, I have the desire to not only make my parents proud of my academic achievements, but to be the first person in my family to receive a college degree. At a very young age, I was always expected to receive A’s and B’s in my school assignments, as well as my final grades. However, I was never rewarded or congratulated whenever I did receive those grades because it was already expected of me to achieve them. Hence, a time in which I have experienced failure but also felt like I let my family down was when I received a D in my Critical Thinking course I was already retaking for the second time. The first time I took Critical Thinking was during the summer in which it was an 8-week long course. Throughout this course I had to read a different chapter every week and had at least 3 assignments due at the end of each week. This was extremely challenging for me because I was already taking two other classes as well and working a part-time job. I ended up receiving a D because I had to join my family on an emergency trip to Mexico; therefore, not allowing me to finish my final project since I had no access to the internet. So,

Throughout the entire course I stressed myself to get my assignments done as quickly as possible. I had the mindset that I would not accept anything lower than a letter grade of C because that is just how I was raised. As a result, I just caused myself to become even more stressed by doing something I was not even capable of because I already had 5 classes I was taking and a full-time job. I realized that in order to succeed I had to be aware and acknowledge my own potential. I learned that in some situations it is just best to settle for what is good for one’s self and that it is okay to not meet other people’s