As I am preparing to finish my time as an undergraduate at Saint Anselm, I have thought often about how I am here and who I owe a deal of gratitude to for this opportunity to pursue a college education. The trite answer is my parents, and while that is very much true, I want to thank my ancestors. I am the first person in my family to pursue a college education, and I have had that opportunity because of my ancestors and the sacrifices they made in coming to America and working hard to give every generation after them a better life. The two things I would like to focus on in this article are my thanks to specific people in my life and the importance of having reverence for one’s roots. 

I want to specifically thank my grandparents for the lessons that they imparted to me and the “gifts” that they gave me in my childhood. Unfortunately, I never met my paternal grandfather, but I was able to spend a considerable amount of my life knowing my other three grandparents. While none of them are alive today, their wisdom still guides me every day. My paternal grandmother, Gloria, was a devout Catholic her entire life. I remember fondly that when she would watch for me as a child, she would always get up early and pray her Rosary with a cup of coffee every morning. Next to her Rosary, she had a large stack of prayer cards, novenas to various and sundry saints, and various devotions that were held together with one little rubber band. She likewise went to Mass every Saturday night, sitting in the same pew for decades. The Mass was not some kind of show for her to simply lift her spirits, but a very special sacrament, which was evidenced in her solemn manner during the liturgy and her perturbation when people would have their phones out or were talking during Mass or when others would chew gum during the liturgy. She would usually respond to those things with the aggravation of an Irish grandmother, bluntly and loudly disproving of their actions. Her devotion to the Catholic faith has been a large part of my growth in the faith. She did not see the Church as some silly old institution with rigid rules, but as Mater et Magistra (“Mother and Teacher”), as Pope Saint John XIII wrote. Her deep devotion to her ancestral faith is truly a gift that she passed down to me and something that has guided me throughout my four years on the hilltop and will continue to guide me throughout my life. 

My maternal grandmother, Arlene, showed me the wonder of travelling. She was notorious for always taking a trip somewhere, even if it was just to get a cup of coffee, so she could leave the house. She was always going somewhere and even in her late life, before she died of cancer, she would still try to go outside and sit by the pool. She passed her restless nature to me. This has inspired me in college to go on trips, even if just to local places in Manchester, and likewise, to travel to other places, such as Europe, which I had the opportunity to visit with the choir in Spring of my Junior year. She also exposed me to doo wop music when I was younger, which I enjoy listening to even now. I have many memories as a child going out for ice cream on a hot summer day and listening to Frankie Valli or Dion and the Belmonts with my grandmother. I still find myself every once in a while, going for a drive with those songs playing in the background, and I am sure I would not have that niche love of old music if it weren’t for her. 

Lastly, my maternal grandfather, Nick, greatly influenced my love of learning. That is apt being that I am now graduating from an institution which is dedicated to learning and intellectual discovery. Ever since my youngest memory, my grandfather always encouraged me to read books. As a child he bought me a Nook, and while I just wanted to play Angry Birds on it, he insisted that I also use it to read books; good books. This love of reading not only made college easier for me to succeed in, but it has also helped me maximize my college experience. Outside of the classroom, I have read many good books ranging from novels to history, and this would never have happened without my grandfather’s perpetual and stubborn insistence in my childhood. This general desire for intellectual discovery has also led me to my career goal, as I am now beginning to prepare for law school applications in the fall. The love of learning is one of the most important gifts that someone can impart to another, and I am truly grateful to my grandfather for this gift. 

I am the first person in my family to graduate from college, but that is not an odd feeling. It is a joyous feeling, but it is most importantly a humbling feeling. Too often in modern society, people look down on their ancestors or act with such pomposity as if they are the brightest minds in all history. I have nothing but humility in the face of the hardships my ancestors endured and am nothing but grateful that I have had this opportunity over the last four years. While my life has been and will be very different from theirs, I am so honored to have traveled and to continue traveling along this path with their wisdom to guide me. C.S. Lewis in his radio broadcast “Beyond Personality” puts it best when he says, “What I call my ‘self’ now is hardly a person at all. It’s mainly a meeting place for various natural forces, desires, and fears, etcetera, some of which come from my ancestors, and some from my education, some perhaps from devils. The self you were really intended to be is something that lives not from nature but from God.”