College For All; Say Whaaaaat? :)

Megan Torio

“Go to college and grow up to be a doctor!” My mom says. “Or a nurse, you’ll get lots of money!” Ha ha. I don’t only hear this from her. I hear it from everyone. Family. Friends. Even strangers on the street. You name it. It’s funny how everyone thinks they know whats best for me, when they don’t even know me! Anyways, I’d say my community and my family are.. different. Different in a way that no one could possibly even come close to understanding. My community has been giving out great opportunities. From going on college for all field trips, going camping, and being able to express yourself in art, dance, and even music! On the other hand, you have the places around Oakland with the “not so great” opportunities. Such as the places where gang violence is held, drug dealing, or just maybe those places where there always seems to be trouble in.  

My friends and family have kept me away from all that. Yet the major issue in my family is some support not being given. You’re probably thinking, “Wow, this girl must be lying. She’s probably getting all the support from her parents provided.” Or something like that. Well let me tell you something. To me, support isn’t support when the person who’s giving it to you doesn’t even mean to. I don’t know if that made sense but I basically just don’t feel all the way supported by my parents. Like my parents support me because they have to but sometimes, it feels like they don’t support me because they want to. It’s never that, “You can do it!” type of support. It’s just the , “Keep it up.” blah type of thing.  

That’s okay I guess because then it’ll teach me to support, motivate, and discipline myself. That isn’t all bad because lately I’ve been learning little by little to do all that. To handle the issue with the support from my parents, I’ve been thinking more about my own future and how to support myself. Learning how to support myself could help me in college once I’m finally on my own. After college I can even go get a good job and help my mom get the house she’s always wanted and we could live an easier life because I’d be helping out the family by working or something.

The changes I’ve been making with myself have impacted my dreams because I never really thought of going to college. I mean, people tell me to go to college and of course I respond in a positive way but I really just, brush it off. Not until now though, I really think college could be important for my future. Going to college will probably get me a better education than my parents ever did. This way, I have the opportunity to teach my parents things that they never learned when they went to school. Which is why I think going to college will be helpful and also a great opportunity to live on my own.

I chose to change the way I think of everything so that I don’t get negative ideas about going to college or change my mind about it. I feel that it is the best solution because if I thought the same way about college like before then I probably would end not even going to college in the future. Then that could really affect the way I could be living when I grow older. It could even affect how my family would be living because they wouldn’t have me to help them. Going to college would also help me find out what I really want to do with my life or what I’ll be really interested in doing when I grow older. I still have a lot of time, but thinking about going to college and especially preparing for it is going to help me a lot more once I actually try going to a college I really like.