Cristal Ortiz-Valencia

California State University, Chico, Paly Class of 2016

Attending college to me means that I have succeeded. No one in my family has ever had the opportunity to attend a four-year university. By attending college, doors to many jobs will open, which as a result will help me assist my mother financially, since my mother is a single parent. Some of the doors that could also be opened are higher paying jobs, that can provide me with financial stability. For example, I would love to become a Clinical Psychologist, one who will provide help to people that are in need. Seeing how hard my mother has worked to raise my sister and I to become respectable people has always motivated me to do better since she never had the chance too. Witnessing my mother’s struggle has given me inspiration to learn more and further my studies. Some have much higher goals than just attending a four-year university, but this has been my dream since the beginning of junior year. I would love to experience college, join a society, make new friends, learn more about myself, and finally graduate with my family there in the audience to witness all of my success. 

Since I was little my mother always told me to do well in school, learn, and go to college because she did not want me to end up having the life that she does. My mother has been working since the age of ten. She would help my grandmother clean houses until she was fifteen. Once she turned fifteen she started working at a daycare center, and since the age of fifteen she still continues to be an infant toddler teacher. Although I admire my mother, I want to achieve a better quality life, where I do not have to worry so much about monetary issues. I have seen my mother financially struggle day by day in order to give my sister and I a little more than the essentials. When I am older I want to be able to support my mother, both financially and emotionally, the way she has done with me since I was young. 
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I want to be able to get a degree, hopefully setting an example for my younger sister to follow. I never had someone as a model, making it almost impossible for me to imagine that I - a Mexican-American with no money - could go to an expensive college. Now, as I am about to graduate high school and be the first in my family to attend college, I want to be a role model in my sister’s life, letting her know that it is possible to graduate high school and go to college. As my mother once told me, “Todo para adelante y nada para atras.” I will continue to look forward to obtain a better life, one that can only be possible by going to college.