- I think it's important to take a moment
and let them know how grateful you are.
- I feel like in our community
we don't really talk about these things.
- It'd be like a complete honor
to say thank you for everything
'cause I feel like it's something
that not a lot of us do very often.
- I feel like my whole life
I knew I was gonna go to college.
I feel like it was never
not an option to go.
- I didn't think it
was a realistic option.
The school that I wanted to go to
I felt like I couldn't reach it.
- I've always, always
wanted to go to school.
I feel like maybe I never had an idea
of what it meant like, for the future
but I knew that it was something
that was gonna be super beneficial for me.
- Me pusé las pilas...to
see what I needed to do
in order to get into the
school that I wanted to.
- Even in high school I felt like I needed
to like, prove to my parents
that I was gonna do better,
that every generation was gonna progress.
- My mom had heart surgery, February
and I graduated in June.
When you see them look at you,
oh my God, I'm gonna start crying already.
- I definitely dedicated my diploma
to my whole family, my
mom, my dad and my sister.
- When they see you,
look at you graduated,
then you just see them, hugging you,
like, that was like, the
best feeling ever, so.
- It'd be like a complete honor
to really take time and say
thank you for everything
'cause I feel like it's something
that not a lot of us do very often.
- I think it's important to take a moment,
put it on paper and let them
know how grateful you are.
- Mama.
- Hello, surprise!
- Hey!
- Hi!
- I thought you were going
to be at home, you said.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I was supposed to.
- Dear Mom and Dad, they say that children
are the greatest imitators
of their parents.
- In my household, I know
both of you worked really hard
to give my brother and I
everything you never had.
- Leaving your life in Mexico to come
to the United States was not easy.
But it was a decision that
determined your future
and the future of your children.
- I am excited to graduate college
within the next two years and
to move on to bigger things.
- Whatever I accomplish in this life
is because I came from strong,
hardworking, loving parents
who only wanted the best for me.
I'm honored to be the
first one in our family
to graduate from a university
and to begin this chain of education
for generations to come.
I love you both.
- We love you, mija.
- We love you too.
