Bozoma Saint John Quotes

I came to America when I was six. In true African form, my parents wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer.

My mother was very strong on me to go to college. No one had ever been to college, including my parents.

I'm Greek-American, and I come from an immigrant-type background, and Greek-American parents want you to be a doctor or a lawyer. Because that's how you make money, and it's very respectable.

I was pre-med at Glasgow University. I was from a family who were of the mind that if you were clever enough to be a doctor or a lawyer, why wouldn't you be?

The announcement that I was going to be an actor was made when was I was 10 years old. And that didn't go down all that well, but I had a lot of years to butter up my parents. My parents have mellowed quite a bit, but, growing up, there was a sense that the only real professions were doctor, engineer, lawyer. Those were your choices.

My mum thought my TV and film addiction was laziness. If you're an immigrant, you know you'll never be an accepted part of society, but you hope your children will be, and you try to make them essential to the community in a practical way - being a doctor or a lawyer. Acting was beyond their comprehension.

Being from a very traditional Chinese-American family, my parents believed the only options to have a successful life were to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer or a business person.

I came from a traditional immigrant family where education meant there were only a few valid paths: doctor or lawyer - and I didn't want to be either one.

When your parents are Middle Eastern immigrants, you have three choices. You can become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer.

In many Asian households, to not go on to higher education, that's like a big no-no. I know my parents' discouragement was for my own protection, and I'm really close to them now, but they didn't understand that there is value in this. That's because they didn't know.

My parents wanted their daughters to reach their full potential. I joke that they said, 'We left our homeland so you could pursue your dreams - as long as you're a lawyer, a doctor, or an engineer.'

My parents' greatest wish was that I graduated from college. Neither of my parents had a college education, and they really wanted me to have one.

I went to Brooklyn College as an education major. It was a big deal in the family, but really, I was living for Mom and Dad.

The reason immigrants come to America is to provide their kids with opportunities, but when they say 'opportunity,' they mean a prestigious job and career. When I had the epiphany that I could do music and sustain myself, they were like, 'OK, son, we need to talk to you.'

My parents wanted me to get a degree.

I know I haven't been the greatest student, but I do intend to get my degree. Otherwise, my mother will kill me.

I'm the first person in my family to go to college, and I'm an immigrant. My aspirations coming out of college weren't particularly lofty. I wanted a good job with a good company.

I think there's always an expectation when you're a first generation, especially a first-generation Nigerian, of sort of being a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. And so, you know, sort of my initial pursuits into the arts and that I was going to pursue film as a career didn't confuse them, but it was definitely something that they were scared about.

On the street where I lived, they almost didn't know the word 'university,' and my mother was simply appalled when it was suggested to her that I was to go to a drama college.

My parents themselves both went to university, and they very much expected me to be an intellectual and go through further education, and it's to kind of their surprise that I became an athlete.

My parents have always had pretty high expectations, but they're very supportive.

I was the first in my family to go to college.

I was the first one in the family, on either side, to go to college - much less graduate school.

My parents never understood why I didn't want to be a doctor or lawyer. They're Cuban immigrants who wanted to give their children the American dream, and, to them, that was more of what 'the dream' entailed.

I was the only one to go to university, and the last thing my dad wanted was for me to be an artist. But later on, when I bought him a house in the south of Spain, he thought it was all right then.