Personal Narrative: My Life As An Asian American Student

As a middle class, Asian American student, it has been a struggle for my mom to financially provide me with the utmost education. Throughout high school, I’ve worked diligently to ensure some financial stability to accomplish my future dreams and goals. However, it was not enough. There were many decisions and sacrifices I had to make to attend a university. The constant financial hardship has shaped me into a more altruistic and mature person. I thought the scholarships from CU Boulder and the government and the money I saved up would be enough, but it wasn’t, which meant I had to accept federal loans. My mom was downright against it because she didn’t want me to start off with debt. I had no choice. I vowed to myself I would never let my mom pay a drop of my tuition. As a single mother things were difficult for her already, and I didn’t want to add another burden to her plate. Not only that but paying for my own tuition meant I would to take my studies more …show more content…
There was little I could do at this point; however, my mom referred me to her friend, Emmy, to discuss my options to pay for college. Instead of panicking about the situation, I had to look at it from another perspective and pick and choose from the gains and losses. It was either I don’t go to college and lose all of the money I put into the university or accept the loans and made sure I earned all of my work-study. I kept worrying about how I would pay back $3,000 to the government, which was why the second solution seemed impossible, but it was unreasonable of me to not attend college. Nonetheless, I learned that agonizing about the endless future possibilities was not going to fix the present problem. In the end, I accepted the challenges and responsibilities to pay for college by signing up for the payment plan and earning all of my work-study money to make ends meet. There was a huge boulder weighing on my shoulders but having a solid plan eased the