When I made the decision to attend Marquette University, I knew I would face challenges and exciting opportunities. I was entering the university’s nationally recognized college of nursing and the highly competitive Army Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) program. I understood the commitments I made would require dedication and perseverance. Throughout my undergraduate years I have continuously faced accomplishments and disappointments, successes and failures, joys and struggles, and somehow I have made it through. Now I recognize the two things that carried me through some of the most memorable and most difficult times in my life: my faith and my family.

My parents have always been my greatest supporters. Whatever goal I set or ambition I had, they stood beside me with love, encouragement, and endless amounts of prayers. By choosing to attend a Catholic-Jesuit university five hours away from my family, I was asserting my independence. I felt my parents had helped to prepare me not only intellectually but also emotionally and spiritually for the challenges I had to face.

Through my four years at Marquette University, my parents continued to be the constant that kept me grounded to my faith and the values I possessed when I left home. Mom and Dad saw me through ROTC accomplishments, conflicts between friends, a broken heart, bad exam scores, academic successes, endless nights of stressful studying, criticism from peers, special recognitions, and persecution from professors. Regardless of my most recent triumph or disappointment, I heard the constant endorsement from the voice that came from the other end of the phone. I received comfort in the phrase I heard so frequently, "We are praying for you, baby."

Those five simple words, "We are praying for you," reached my soul every time I heard them. It was easy for me to get lost in the commitments, meetings, classes, papers, exams, projects, and evaluations that seemed never ending. It was easy to feel dejected, alone, or overwhelmed when relationships were broken, friendships were tested, and dramatic conflicts arose. It was easy for me to be weighed down by guilt, regret, and shame. It was in the times when I felt most alone and most helpless in life that I heard my parents’ voices through the sound of my own sobbing tears: "We are praying for you, baby." The phrase would snap me back to reality. I should have been taking all my burdens to my Lord and asking him for help, guidance, strength, and perseverance. My parents’ gentle words reminded me to look back to the cross and look back to the promises laid out for me in the Word.

My parents were constantly giving me lessons. Always do your best, always be true to yourself, and always find your strength in the Lord. I can see now the integral part my parents have always played in my life but even more so in my adult education.