Two short lines do a lot of work here. Mom’s goal was to graduate college—something she wanted for herself. Dad’s goal, by contrast, was Mom. The wording matters: he didn’t say he wanted to marry her or build a life with her; his goal was her, as if she were the prize. That makes the gap between the two ambitions feel sharp. She was reaching toward a diploma; he was reaching toward a person.
The speaker’s tone seems quietly ironic, maybe a little sad. There’s humor in how neatly the two goals collide, but also a suggestion of something unfair: one parent has a goal shaped around self-improvement, while the other’s goal is wrapped up in someone else. The mood is spare and bittersweet, like a family story told in one breath—small on the surface, but carrying a lot of unspoken history.