College

One of by far the hardest decision i had to make was college. I ultimately made this decision on my own because my parents grew up in Haiti so they had no knowledge of how education in the US worked. I also couldn't ask my family or relatives because I'm the first person in my entire family to go to college. Although, i made the final decision i sought for help in my mentors and successful people around my community on what is the best decision and how to go about my post secondary education. This was a very important decision because of the important role i played in my family. Since i am the first one to go through the education system in the US i handled my parents paperwork due to my knowledge. I handled everything from bills, legal documents, contracts, technology, and even helping them choose personnel like lawyer, and accountant. Also my mother and father worked most of the day so i had to step in and fill in their roles. I took over most of their parental responsibility in picking up my siblings from school, feeding them if they didn't cook, making sure they did their homework and helping them, and just guiding them through school since i been there. I also balanced this with a job of my own helping my parents financially. This decision was tough because i received a few full ride scholarships to local schools that would allow me to continue helping my parents and our family. It became even harder when i encountered some legal issues my senior year around the time to fill out financial aid and i didn't couldn't receive my full potential of financial aid so had to take out a loan my first year. The ultimate argument came down to money vs. experience. Have i gone to one of the local schools i would have been getting paid to go to school basically while helping my family or rather struggle my first year at UF financially but obtain the a better quality education and full experience of the college life. I came to the conclusion that going to UF and succeeding there would ultimately benefit my parents and family in the long run way farther then what i would have been able to do at the moment while going to a local school. Moreover, i thought that the experience i would obtain, would outweigh the money i would have been receiving have i gone somewhere else. The pictures below represent some of the factors that were affecting me. The first being stress because of all the paperwork and trying to figure things out with no parental support or help. The next two being balance in trying to outweigh the pros and cons for both situations. The last being regret of trying to make sure i made the right decision.