Rick Moreno (Texas) Shares His Story of Achievement
My dad was a rancher and my mom was a housewife. Last year I completed my doctoral program. Walking across the stage to receive my PhD made me realize that accomplishing a dream takes determination.
For me, the determination to walk across that stage came from many, many talks on summer evenings eating watermelon with my grandparents on their porch, listening to their “consejos” about what it takes to be successful in life. This determination was what I learned from watching my mom make ends meet after a tumultuous marriage and divorce.
My determination to succeed was met with many challenges. My first challenge came when I decided to go to college rather than “work on the ranch.” There was no pressure to attend college, and none of my friends were motivated to leave Laredo, TX. The struggle I went through accomplishing my first degree was overcoming my shyness to move to Austin after living in a small city and spending most of my weekends at the ranch. The next challenge came in making the decision to travel 300 miles for every weekend class from Laredo to San Antonio and back. For two years, every weekend, at four or five o’clock in the morning, I would start out for class. The first year into my program, I changed jobs, my wife and I had twins, and unfortunately my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I completed my program with a 4.0 grade point average, all while trying to be a good husband, dad, and son. My mom passed away shortly before graduation. I promised her I would continue until I completed my PhD. This entailed another six years of driving 150 miles to San Antonio and another 150 miles back to Laredo.
Walking across the stage last year made me think of all these challenges — driving at all hours of the night, missed birthday parties, missed weddings, missed time spent on many special family occasions. But walking across the stage also made me realize that the most awesome feeling of accomplishing my dream is knowing my children were part of this journey. To them, the “norm” is going all the way to achieving their doctorate. I was able not only to change my generations’ accomplishments, but also the generations to follow. My son’s dream is to become a paleontologist and my daughter wants to become a heart specialist.
Most of all, I was able to keep my promise to both myself and my mom. I was blessed with the unconditional love of my grandparents, my mom, my brother, my sister, my wife, and now my children. That’s my story…from the heart!
Editor’s Note: Please send your family story to NAHF for publication in future posts to christyrosche(at)hispanicfamily.org.