My Cannonball Moment: Attending College as a First Gen Student
By Clara Dwyer, Assistant Director for Office of Engagement and Inclusion
As the oldest child of an immigrant single-mother from Burma, deciding to attend Santa Clara University, a private, Jesuit university in the Silicon Valley, was a major life decision not just for me but my family. Being the first in my family to embark upon the journey towards a college degree, I was not sure it was the right decision because it felt like an abandonment of the people I cared about most.
The transition to college was tough for me. I did not immediately find my footing and felt unprepared for the rigor and newfound freedom. After some time, when I went home, I felt as though I was straddling two worlds, experiencing identity and relationship dissonance. I knew I was growing and developing my thinking, but it was an ongoing struggle to know my purpose.
It was my junior year when I took a Theology class that helped me understand grace, beauty, and thinking about desolation and consolation, God and suffering. In short, I was given the ability see beauty and God in others and in the present moment if only I chose to open myself. Alongside the friendships, this cannonball moment was one of the greatest gifts of my Jesuit education.
Celebrate First Gen Week with Marquette University.
https://www.marquette.edu/first-generation-students/first-gen-day.php
