Student story: Overcoming family obstacles to college

- An obstacle I faced with my family was cultural and also related to my background and where we came from. In my country, most people didn't leave their homes at 18. It's very communal. People live together until they're married and especially women don't really leave the house until they're married of course and so it was really weird and hard for my parents to understand why in America kids moved away at 18. I think part of the fear was that they would never come back or that they're leaving the nest, but it wasn't like that in my family. I assured my mom that this was a four year thing, that I would be back and I did come back, but that college was going to be a really life-changing experience and that sometimes community colleges won't give the same experience as going to a four year university where you can get really immersed especially if you have the financial means. That's when they were concerned about finances. They said if we can find enough money then we'll let you go. So financial obstacles were actually matched with cultural obstacles, but it helped for them to trust me that they had done a good job of raising me and I had to talk to them. I had teachers talk to them. I had people who had sent kids to colleges of their same cultural background also talk to them to look at the pros and cons and after a few years of going to college they actually did see how it really helped me to leave the nest and realize how much I actually loved and appreciated home, that made me want to come back because I missed them so much and so it actually worked out for their benefit too.