Why do you go home so often? You really rather spend the weekend in boring Jersey than getting lit here? These are common questions I get from my friends here on campus and every time they ask it, I respond the same way. F.O.E., or family over everything. If I were to ever get a tattoo it would be these letters. My education is important, my social life and the relationships I have with certain people in my life are also highly valued, but it’s the people I share blood with that matters most to me. F.O.E. is a philosophy and value that’s been instilled in me for as long as I could remember which has made me the man I am today.
I have had two great parents that set the precedent and three siblings that I’ve been able to look up too. My family left everything behind in Ecuador to come to the States in the eighties, and you know why? As my dad says “familia sobre todo,” they came here for a better future and without them I wouldn’t be writing this blog today. My family has done everything possible for me to be successful, so I always consider them whenever I make life-changing decisions such as where I was going to continue my education. In May 2016, I graduated from my community college and each of them said to come to Penn State. Last Fall, of the seventeen weeks of the semester, I went home for the first 12. The reason? My sister was pregnant, and I wanted to be there for her as she was always there for me. I didn’t care if I had to do my homework in a tight seat on the Greyhound bus to Newark if it meant I got to be there for my sister. My father is currently losing his memory and it’s the reason I sit in the back row on the first chair nearest to the door just in case he calls me, just in case he needs me. He is my best friend and whenever I’m needed, I go home even if it meant spending six hours on a bus.
Naturally, as an out of state student, I do get homesick from time to time, but whenever I’m down I always think about them. I remember how they raised me to be the man I am today. I remember I left home for not just any school, I left it for Penn State. I remember that I’m not the only one benefitting from my education here, but that every single person in my family benefits from my 73-year-old dad to my one-year-old nephew. In May 2020, it will all be worth it when I become the first member of my family to graduate with a college degree.
To be fair I do go home often, but it is for one reason and one reason only, F.O.E.