I was awarded $1 million in scholarships to NYU. I also sacrificed a lot of my teenage life to get there.

The author received more than $1 million in combined scholarship offers from over 20 colleges before attending NYU.

Courtesy of Omarion Calloway I was offered more than $1 million in scholarships from over 20 colleges.

I spent hours every night searching for scholarships and financial aid.

I ultimately earned a full ride to NYU, but getting there was a job in itself.

When I was 18, local headlines and social media posts about me all focused on the exact same number: I was accepted into more than 20 colleges and offered over $1 million in combined scholarship funding.

I'm sure that to people reading the news, that seven-figure total sounded like a lottery win .

What the headlines missed was the invisible labor it took to get there.

People saw the final funding amount.

They didn't see the unpaid late-night hours I worked every single night, completely on my own, just to afford my future.

No manual, no guidance counselor, and no road map I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, determined to become the first person in my family to graduate from college.

My goal was to study film and television at New York University.

Getting accepted was one hurdle, but figuring out how to pay for it was the real wall.

My family did not have extra money for tuition , and my mom had never navigated higher education.

When I asked for help at school, my guidance counselor had no answers for an out-of-state dream.