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We often imagine disadvantage as a well-defined, single hurdle that is easy to overcome.

In reality, disadvantage behaves more like a shadow that stretches far beyond the moments that created it.

Progress toward equality takes time due to lingering effects of earlier barriers compounded by new ones.

We often imagine disadvantage as a well-defined hurdle: a single obstacle that appears, is overcome, and then is swiftly forgotten. The implicit story is one of simplicity—a challenge was met, a lesson learned, and a problem solved.

Disadvantage and its long shadow

But in reality, disadvantage behaves less like a hurdle and more like a shadow, one that stretches far beyond the moment that created it. Moreover, disadvantage is rarely a single event and more often a series of compounding experiences. Some clearly identifiable, many others crazy-making opaque. Each experience must be navigated, interpreted, and integrated. Over time, these shadows accumulate, not always visibly, not always consciously, but undeniably powerfully. The result is a weight that individuals carry forward, long after any single obstacle has technically been overcome or "forgotten." A very real weight that often at some point starts to colour the lens through which we view the world.

Consider the following:

A first-in-family university student enters higher education without insider knowledge, navigating unfamiliar systems while questioning whether........

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