• After spending three years at university, I moved back in with my parents. • I cried in the car while my dad drove the 320 miles home because I felt so adrift. • The following months when I missed college and my friends were among the worst of my life.

My parents and grandmother attended my graduation after driving five and a half hours from my hometown to the city where I studied.

It was a big deal — not so much for a 320-mile journey, which was considered a long way in my native UK — but because I was the first member of our family to get a degree.

I'll always remember their proud, smiling faces when I walked onto the stage in my cap and gown and received my certificate from the chancellor.

We posed for photographs on the lawn and enjoyed casual drinks with my professors.

I in

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