This included orientation which was a day where students could familiarize themselves with university life. Of course the only thing on my mind was finances. So I scheduled a meeting with financial aid expecting to hear numbers I could never afford. It turns out that I spent so much time assuming that poverty was a hole you could never climb out of, that I failed to understand that it's possible to get help. With our constant financial problems, I was able to get enough aid to cover my college education. Stress turned to joy and for the first time money wasn't the foremost thing on my mind. After years of struggling with money, I could now focus on something else. The fact that college was free meant that the only concern I had was doing my best so I could graduate in the future and finally break out of the cycle of poverty I imagined myself in for the rest of my life. It was a weight off my shoulders that freed me to do everything I could dream of. My focus was on the future and I knew that the lessons I had learned throughout my life would help me greatly