The acceptance letters arrived from five California universities. My mother beamed but I dared not share the news with my father. “You have big dreams,” he would say. “It’s not good to dream big because the disappointment in not achieving those aspirations is going to get the best of you. And what good does a college degree bring to a woman? You will marry - fill your house with children and then what? No college degree needed for that.” I signed my acceptance letter with my mother’s blessing. I left for college without my father’s consent. It was Move-In Day, one week before the Fall Quarter commenced. My mother borrowed the neighbor’s Mustang and drove me to the University of California at Riverside. Freshman and returning students unloaded their belongings at the horseshoe-curb in front of the Aberdeen-Inverness Dormitories. Students were accompanied by their families – setting up their rooms, meeting their roommates, touring the campus, buying textbooks and UCR apparel. My mother had scrounged money to purchase the basics for living in a dorm …