In Richard Rodriguez's essay The Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez explains the complexities of trying to harmonize a life between academics and family: more specifically a family which belongs to the middle class. Growing up, Rodriguez was not the average student; he would fully immerse himself in books as opposed to spending time with his family At first, Rodriguez's attitude towards education made him standout amongst his peers. However, with this extreme dedication to education Rodriguez pays a steep price. He essentially loses the relationships that a boy of his age should have among friends and family. After coming to the realization that he is much like the "scholarship boy  described in a book by Richard Hoggart, Rodriguez narrates the struggles he endured which ultimately developed him into the person he is today. In my own unique way, I connected to certain elements described in The Achievement of Desire and shared with him the traits of the so called "scholarship boy . Before delving into my educational journey let me set the scene I grew up in. I come from a middle class family in which my parents have limited education. My parents are dumb by no means; however, with limited education follows limited job opportunity. Neither decided to pursue college, but rather joined the workforce immediately. (I've never asked whether they were content with that situation.) My mother now works as a city auditor and my father a self-employed mechanic for 15+ years until he took a slightly better job somewhere else. We as a family never struggled severely, but instead had just enough to get by at the end of the month. While growing up I knew it would be dangerous to follow in my parents footsteps. It wasn't that I didn't admire them; however, I knew I couldn't model my education after theirs simply because from a young age I didn't want to end up living the rest of my life in my small hometown. Another consequence of coming from a family with limited education is that when it came to homework, most of the time my parents slowed me down more than anything ”not so much in grade school but in high school as I moved into advanced classes. I would bring home long nagging physics or mathematics problems in which both my mom and dad asked, "Marshall what are you learning about?  The response was usually the same every time, "I'm not too sure you guys will understand it.  In a way I could relate to Rodriguez on page 343 when he mentions, " I hoarded the pleasures of learning. Alone for hours . Rodriguez had no intentions of making conversation with his parents because he felt as if he needed more time for his books. Such was my case, I wasn't trying to be facetious, but rather trying to avoid the small talk of explaining to them a long drawn out topic that would take time away from my work. In a way they were unintentionally taking away time from my own "pleasures of learning  that Rodriguez experienced as well. Granted at times my parents could be a hindrance to my studies, they were always very supportive of my habits and often praised me for m