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Nothing was easy for us coming up. But we were rich in family.

I was the only kid out of six of us to go to college, primarily because my parents could not afford it.

In my family, there was one cardinal priority - education. College was not an option; it was mandatory. So even though we didn't have a lot of money, we made it work. I signed up for financial aid, Pell Grants, work study, anything I could.

My mum and dad had worked incredibly hard to afford me an education.

I knew I wanted considerable education so that I wouldn't have to work as hard as my parents.

Even when my parents were together, they both had to travel and work, and it wasn't like they had nine-to-five jobs. In that way, it wasn't a normal family life.

It was a very hard life. As I got older, the family was depending very much on me. My two older brothers got married, so they had their own families depending on them. I had seven people relying on me, so I worked in a grocery store.

My parents instilled in me that life was going to be very difficult and that I'd have to work for everything.

The hardest part is to travel, and to be away from your family.

It never occurred to me that I wouldn't go to college and have a career - as well as a family - of my own. Both my parents, but especially my mother, encouraged me and led me to believe that it was possible.