While growing up in Guinea, West Africa, my parents did not have the same educational opportunities that were awarded to my six siblings and I. College was a privilege for me because my culture stresses early marriage and most women in my family take on those traditional roles. My mother never went to school and her frustration with this reminds me of how fortunate I am to be able to take advantage of the opportunities around me. Although it is often times expected that women get married and start a family after graduating high school, I matriculated to college because my parents’ desire to educate their children superseded their fear of a cultural shift. To many, my sisters and I disrupted the intergenerational continuity of a Guinean woman's
