Danger_Zone

I wouldn't be so quick to judge somebody who does this while initially learning about grad school. When I was a junior in university I had just begun to think about grad school myself, and was full of a lot of questions, doubt and confusion. I don't think reaching out for advice necessarily means that they can't think for themselves, but maybe that they are overwhelmed or a little unsure of if they have the right credentials. I wondered myself if my grades were high enough for grad school (3.7 major and 3.3 cumulative, the latter of which was caused by some problems earlier on in undergrad). I ended up talking to one of my professors who said I did have a chance, especially if I worked on other aspects of my application. So while you cannot definitively tell somebody whether or not other credentials can offset a bad GPA, it can still be reassuring to ask and know what kind of chances you may have based on others experience.

Well all of my documents were acceptable and I will be receiving my visa documents soon! I'm really relieved.  

I am a first generation student. Neither of my parents went to college. I grew up well below the poverty line in a single-parent household and was completely supporting myself by 17. Academia has been a huge adjustment. I know some working-class students, but I did not grow up in the working-class. I do not have supportive but clueless parents. It makes for awkward conversations when faculty ask very basic questions about my family (what do your parents do? where did you grow up? are you going home for the summer/holiday/etc?), and I can't answer because I don't really know them, when i did live with my mother we moved constantly, and the home I have built for myself here is my year round home. At first I as intimidated by all things academia, being in rooms with people that had tutors, went to Ivy league undergrad (I'm in an ivy league phd but went community college to no-name state school for the BA), but that mostly faded. The only real, persistent difference I notice between my peers who come from middle/upper (and sometimes working) class backgrounds and I is the ease with which they express themselves and how quickly they can articulate their opinions. Believing that you have something worth saying and knowing how to say it are skills that I know I lack, and I am sure many other first generation students do as well.

My dad is a Ph.D, and research active in business, but not my field.  His parents weren't educated, but both of his brothers have advanced degrees, and all my cousins on that side have at least a bachlors degree.  My grandfather on the other side was an MD, and I think his mother was very well educated as well.  Needless to say, college wasn't an if, but a when.
I have been very privileged to have everyone in my life appreciate academics.  But it is still it's own experience.  I decided to work for a few years just so that I knew I wanted to be an academic, and that it wasn't just my dad wanting me to be one. The job search was actually kind of hard.  My dad has had tenure for over 15 years, and my mom has never worked outside the home.  My other close adult friends were either academics or entrpenures. So everyone in my life was kind of clueless about the job search process.  It ended well, and I'm not complaining,  but I did have to figure it out myself.
I'd say overall, having a dad in academia does help. I can bounce research ideas off of him and he has a good ear for an interesting study.  But it will not make or break you.  My dad can't write my papers, or force me to study for statistics.  The main help he provides is just being a positive voice in my life.  Sometimes he believes in me more than I believe in myself. (He is convinced that I should be able to complete my degree in three years. Hahaha!)  But I think that is something that any parent can provide for their children, and if they don't, find someone who will.

I'm first generation, too. My mom graduated high school but my dad dropped out around 10th grade. He was never very good at reading and couldn't even spell my name, but he worked hard all his life as a laborer in various industries from fruit picking to construction. Jack of all trades, master of none. Mom's floated around medical fields for 30 years but never got much higher than a certified nurse's assistant, now she's a scheduler in a doctor's office. They wanted me to go to and finish school but they honestly had no idea how to support me through any of it. I did all of it on my own and I still am while I work for my MA. 
It's been a difficult road from the get-go, but I've realized I'm a pretty strong, determined person. 

I'm technically first generation but not really. My mom started her associates a year after I started undergrad. My grandparents worked straight out of high school. My uncle just got his PhD two years ago and my aunt has her MBA. Although all of my family is extremely supportive, my aunt and uncle are my go-to for anything grad school related. My aunt didn't get me into school but she's expanded my network and connected me with other professionals who have gone through the school psychology phD process. In a way, I had assistance because I knew how to prepare for the process and have insight of the field and program but I still had to do most of the work and get myself into school. 

I'm the first in my family to pursue higher education (undergrad and grad). My parents were immigrants and were raised in poverty (HS and grade school education), but I was lucky enough to experience a pretty middle classed childhood. They've always pushed me to go as far as I could academically, so I'm lucky that they've been as supportive as they can be. 
And though I know even with my education I will not make as much as they do (because of their long hours and such), I appreciate the opportunity they have given me to experience life through this lens. 

Google Flights is my new favorite way to search.
Hipmunk is another option in addition to what the others said.
About 2 years ago, I made a mistake using Hipmunk by not realising that picking an outgoing leg limits your return leg options. Now, I believe the site does the two searches separately, so you can pick any two combination. 

flights.google.com

This is my reading style...

I'm going to have a hell of a time at grad school.

This is my reading style...

I'm going to have a hell of a time at grad school.

Yeah my final year was rough as well, and my year off made me eager to go back.  I'm glad I did it.

Committed to Vanderbilt last Friday!  It was a difficult decision, but I knew after visiting that it was without question the best program/place for me.

I will be attending Penn State! Just committed this morning. It feels good to have definite direction in my life again  

Attending Boston College =D

Burnt through Obsessive Genius in a day, and I've tackled The World's Strongest Librarian since. Both were good. I think I'm going to track down a copy of Marie Curie's biography on Pierre as I've always thought he was a fascinating individual.
I've now started The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter by Katherine Freese. I'm liking it so far. 
Go books go!

I was very fortunate to have some really great professors who helped mentor me. I think without them I may not be going to grad school in the fall. When I started undergrad I did think about attending grad school, but felt it was unrealistic for me to go somewhere that was not only more difficult, but more competitive. I also couldn't imagine going to school for another decade! (A bit of an exaggeration, but at the time I was considering going to school for psychology and had heard things about grad school taking 5-7 years, then post-docs, etc.) But once you learn it is more like job training - and that you usually get paid for said training - it really is a whole new environment and experience than undergrad.
My parents are supportive as well and proud of what I'm doing, even though I have to explain what that is sometimes (I still have to remind them that I don't already have a Master's degree ).

This described me around 2007, when I was starting my 3rd year of undergrad and just started to realise that grad school is something I wanted to do and also could actually achieve. Everything changed when during this year, I started talking to professors and got some mentorship on how research works, what academia is, and how to apply for schools. I feel super lucky to have a great mentor like this!
I know a lot of my friends in grad school now have parents who were in grad school. I asked them the same question you asked in your post and for the most part, it's a positive thing. There are so many weird "unwritten" rules/conventions in academia that you just don't know about. For example, I had no idea that grad schools pay students and it's like a job instead of accruing more debt. If this was not true, there was no way I could have gone to more school after my undergrad, because it would not be financially possible.
My parents are great, supportive and loving people. One finished high school and another had to drop out of high school to help pay the bills for their family. They lived through a war as children/teenagers and immigrated to Canada as war refugees. So, they were also completely in the dark about how academia works. They did value education throughout my whole childhood but when I first said I was considering grad school, their first question was "But you're finishing college, isn't it time to get a job / can't you be a professor now?" They meant this in the best way possible though! But I definitely understand how you are feeling.

As others have said, I can't help you come up with ideas for your thesis - a large part of writing a thesis is being able to formulate ideas that will make a significant contribution to your field but also help you grow as a critical thinker, writer, researcher, etc. - but if this helps at all I am currently reading a book called How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco. He doesn't tell you what to write your thesis on, but goes through the process of finding resources, compiling bibliographies and coming up with a realistic, workable thesis (by that I mean how wide or narrow in scope your thesis should be), among other things. It may help to find resources like this which help with the initial research process. Through this you should be able to find a number of resources essential to your thesis topic and you can go from there.

I knew a gal who taught English in China and she loved it.  She saved a ton of money by staying with a host family and doing inexpensive things like hiking on the weekend.  Of course she was stuck there longer than expected because of the SARS outbreak, but her host family was understanding and continued to let her stay with them.  
Regarding taking time off between undergrad and grad school, I think everyone should do it.  When out of academia you learn a lot about yourself and really get a chance to figure out what you do and do not want to do.  Many parts of the world are un/undereducated and learning to interact within it can be challenging if you're only accustomed to dealing with people as one well educated person to another.

A professor I admire very much (he later wrote one of my letters of recommendation) talked me into taking time off.  It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.  Granted, I only took a year, but it allowed me to get my priorities straight and save some money.  He put it this way: If you don't miss it once you're gone, don't go back.  

Streamlining grading for papers is actually not that hard, provided you focus on quality and not quantity. That is, 3 really good assignments are better than 5 or 6 mediocre ones. In addition, think really carefully about the length of each assignment. First and second year students are going to struggle to write decent papers of more than 4-5 double-spaced pages so, if you're asking for that, you're putting yourself in a situation where you'll need to give a lot of feedback because they're struggling to do what you've asked. In my writing intensive second year course, there's only two assignments (the midterm and the final) that are more than 4 pages double-spaced. Everything else they write is under 750 words (I use word maximums, rather than page numbers) and several are capped at 300 or 500 words depending on the task. (300 words is if they're summarizing something; 500 if they have to do summary and analysis.) I've found that limiting how much they can write in this way forces them to be more concise which gives me less to grade. I've even had students thank me for forcing them to cut all the fluff out of their paper (aka, they hit the word maximum but realized they hadn't said what they wanted to say so they had to go back and edit heavily). 
For grading, use rubrics and a timer. The rubric makes it easier for you to know what to deduct for and also gives some consistency to the grading. I use rubrics for all of the papers I assign. If you go the rubric route, provide students with the rubric in advance (definitely before the assignment is due) so that they know how they are being evaluated. Some instructors even have students score themselves based on the rubric and turn in that self-assessment with their paper. I'm planning to try that out next semester so, ask me in May how that went. 
The timer is seriously the key to grading efficiently. Read through one or two papers without commenting and see how long it takes you. For a 500 word paper, the answer for me is like 3 minutes. So then, I'll give myself 6-8 minutes to read, provide feedback on, and grade each paper. I'll keep an eye on the timer so that I know when I'm about to run out of time. When time is running out, it's almost always because I'm filling a paper with comments. Too many comments will actually overwhelm a student so it may not be helpful in the long run. The timer keeps me from doing that. If I finish before the timer goes off, then I give myself a break to surf the web, change the music, pet the dog, etc. Then I get right back into it. I typically grade 5 papers in a block then take a mini break before getting back into it (think pomodoro technique). It really helps, I promise.

@Need Coffee in an IV and @Danger_Zone, have you seen this video of Eco giving advice to young writers? https://biblioklept.org/2016/02/19/advice-to-young-writers-from-umberto-eco-2/

@Need Coffee in an IV It's definitely a helpful read. I've picked up a few books on thesis/dissertation research/writing that I thought I'd read before starting my research, so I will have to see how useful I find them. I am hoping I can start grad school much more organized and informed than when I started undergrad!

It's very weird to me to remember that I sent my first application over 5 months ago. I've been so preoccupied with this whole process! And now it's all over. I wish I could tell former me to stop freaking out so much. Anyway I think as long as you are passionate about your topic you will make it work. It's also nice to go into grad school having a solid idea for a topic.
(I also love your pic! I spent a lot of time watching Seinfeld and Curb to help pass the time and relax. )