When I was a rising high school junior, my mom and I saw a flier about a Guilford County Schools college planning support program and immediately knew that it was something that we should explore. At the first meeting, we knew that it was something that I needed. While I am the first in my family to attend college, I have an aunt who is a college professor at a college in Texas who has often offered advice from afar. Yet, as I worked my way through the curriculum and sat in awe at the monthly meetings in which I learned the distinction between liberal arts colleges and research universities and opportunities for all-expenses paid visits to colleges I began to expand my college reach. I entered the college planning process committed to attending Guilford College, not far from where I lived in Greensboro, North Carolina. Since our state does not offer a state scholarship, I was resolved to take out student loans. After all, isn’t that the way that everyone pays for college? Yet, month after month, I set goals of becoming a better and more competitive student. While I was already a ‘good’ student, I was committed to becoming a ‘great’ student. Approaching the end of my junior year of high school, I began applying to fly-in programs. It was not long before I began questioning if my dreams were too big, if my reach was too far. One by one, I was rejected from each program and then it happened—I was invited to the fly-in program at Amherst College. When the time came for me to board my flight, my mom dropped me off at the airport, gave me a big hug, and I was off to begin what would become an amazing journey.