This is adapted from my entry to the President Obama Tumblr regarding Federal Student Loans.
My parents are both first-generation college graduates. My mother’s older brothers and sister went to
college, but my father was the first college graduate in his family.
I grew up knowing that I and my siblings were expected to go
to college. And knowing that we would
have to figure out our own way to get there.
My parents raised four of us on an Air Force Captain’s salary. In order to send us to Catholic schools, we
grew up without cable television, eating out was a rare occasion, we rarely
traveled, and much of our furniture was purchased from thrift stores.
