The First Generation Experience: The Hidden Struggles And Rewards

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TX State chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

First Generation students are the backbone of their family. They are completing a degree for their future, even if it means having to live farther from their families. They are the people that are making their family proud, by honoring the challenges and hardships their elders faced and making it better. Being a first generation student means you are facing new and scary obstacles your parents didn’t get the privilege to face. It doesn’t mean you won’t get through them, it just means you have to work that much harder. Here are the hidden struggles and rewards those students go through.

The Silent Challenges

It is not a secret that being the first person in your family to go to college has its challenges. You have to navigate a whole world that not even your parents can understand. You’ll often feel as if you have a lacking support system, due to the fact that most of your family won’t have the answers to all your questions. Your mindset is often stuck between not allowing yourself to fail, and still wanting to have fun. It’s hard to explain your small wins to parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents because you feel as if you’re rubbing in their faces that you’re here and they’re not. With that, comes the mindset that you’re alone, but I can assure you, you’re not. 

Another obstacle first generation students face is the lack of preparation. You didn’t have that role model growing up to show you how college works, or what adulting away from your parents would look like. You tend to get a sort of “imposter syndrome” that makes you feel as if you’re not smart enough to be at the university. It feels like everyone else around you knows exactly what they’re doing and what they want to be. Although the list goes on with hardships first generation students face, there is so much good as well. 

Why It’s Worth It

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a first generation student. THAT alone is a success. You are building a life that you want, while it may have been hard to get here, you ARE here. The satisfaction of one day graduating should be a reward in itself. The “College Experience” whatever it may look like for you is a privilege to have. You’re meeting people from around the world, making new memories that will live with you forever. You’re making connections that will help you land a job one day, or maybe even help you keep getting more degrees. This is a time in your life that you get to find yourself, maybe even meet the love of your life. All those hardships and sleepless nights that make you feel like you should give up, cannot even begin to compare to the day you look back and say, “I did it.” 

Whether your struggles go unheard, they are not invalid. You’re not alone in your journey, no matter what your head tells you at 2am studying for your final in the morning. There are so many other students that are going through similar things, go out and find them. Those are the people that you can talk to, because I am sure they needed to find you as well. The breath of relief in your future awaits, I will be cheering all of my fellow first generation students on. You got this!!