How to Start Over Without Losing Your Beginning, Middle, or End

Abstract

Miranda Seche, a recent graduate of Cal State University, Los Angeles, reflects on her father’s educational journey as a first-generation college student and its impact on her own. His focus on the importance of college pressured Seche to attend university on his behalf instead of attending on her own. Thus, feelings of unpreparedness, navigational difficulties, and a lack of motivation surrounded her first foray into secondary education; feelings she realized were shared by many first-generation students everywhere. While sharing her new understanding of the hardships first-generation students endure, Seche also questions the lack of emphasis on the positive experiences and development that arise from those issues. After choosing to attend college again after a much-needed hiatus, Seche is emboldened by her previous struggles and explores the feeling of first-gen euphoria. In doing so, she focuses on her present accomplishments and looks back on her past as an opportunity for growth, rather than failure.