“Being a first-generation high school graduate means a lot to me. I am the first person in my family to earn a high school diploma. My family had to quit high school to earn a living to support themselves and their siblings and contribute to the household expenses to alleviate some stress from their parents. Unfortunately, a lot of my family didn't have the time or inclination to get their GEDs because of various stressors in their lives. That cycle (almost) repeated with me, when I turned 14. I got my working papers. I used my paycheck to buy school clothes for me and my sisters, school supplies, snacks to take to school, and lunch money to purchase lunches for us at school. Working in the laundry and as a chambermaid was really rough work physically. While I was proud of my working-class roots, I wanted to work with my mind rather than my backs, legs, arms, and hands. My grandfather would often show me his hands and say, "You don't want your hands to look like this. Find better work." His hands were scarred, thick with calluses, and tattooed with grease and oil that even Snap-On chemical hand cleaner could never remove. He wanted better for his eldest grandchild--for all his grandchildren.

I did go to college; it was tough, but I loved it. I discovered that I was really good at school--that I loved learning about almost anything. I learned a different way to labor which was extremely gratifying, but it created a wedge between my family and myself. It was like I was speaking a completely different language to them; that I became a new person. That created a lot of tension. That tension only got worse when I went to grad school. My family would ask me, "What did you work on today?" I'd tell them what I read, what I wrote, and what classes I attended and taught. But that didn't matter to my family because there wasn't a product or something physical at the end of the day that I could point to. To them, there wasn't a service I provided for someone or a finished product that someone could benefit from. To close the growing gap between my family and myself, I worked on communicating how my work was a form of tangible labor. It helped to ease some of that tension by underscoring how the kinds of labor that I did impacted others and provided a service.

Now, I get to work with my mind rather than my body on a daily basis as a professor. I love working with first-year students; I love learning about how they think. I am so lucky that I get to introduce students to all types of materials and ideas, but I get a lot of pleasure from also introducing them to different representations of labor, depictions of the class systems local and global, and representations of undervalued types of work. Even more important, my education allows me to help my family figure out so many things like the resources needed to complete a GED, get a terminal degree, prep for an interview, ask for a raise or a promotion, and even help the newer generations figure out a path to community college or a 4-year college.

I am proud of my working-class roots and my academic life.”

- Dr. Nicole Batchelor, Lehigh University English Professor