My Family Said My Wedding Was Too Far but Traveled for My Sister Until Weeks Later My Father Needed Something From Me

College clarified everything further. I got into the University of Iowa with a fifteen-thousand-dollar scholarship, which left the remainder to be covered by federal student loans. Fifty-two thousand dollars borrowed for my bachelor’s degree. Madison enrolled at the same university two years later and graduated four years after that with no debt at all, a year abroad in Florence, and a three-thousand-dollar graduation gift. My parents attended my graduation ceremony but could not stay for dinner because they had promised to help Madison move into her new apartment. I stood in the parking lot in my cap and gown and watched their car leave. Then I drove home and put on regular clothes and made myself something to eat.

By the time I finished my master’s degree in higher education, I was carrying eighty-nine thousand dollars in student loans and celebrating my own milestones alone, which I had become very efficient at. I started working in admissions at the University of Iowa in 2014, entry-le