<p>Graduating high school was always something that I’d been expected to do.</p>
<p>As a result, my parents continued to be proud of me. They showed their appreciation by attending my high school graduation. It represents the real world quite accurately: if you do your job well, you get to come back the next day and reap the benefits, but if you don’t do it well, you lose your job and life becomes hard.</p>
<p>As for the benefits of parents continuing to be proud of me? Well, I have had and continue to have their full support in my journey through college. If things get difficult, they will back me to a level that far exceeds that of most of my friends.</p>