You can appreciate sacrifice without owing imitation.

A sacrifice made for you can carry an implied instruction, that you live the life it was intended to purchase. But someone giving up their own chances so you would have more was buying you options, not obligations, whatever anyone says afterward. Honoring it means using the room they made, not reproducing their choices in a world that no longer exists.

If a decision feels weighed down by what someone gave up for you, ask what they actually wanted for you rather than what they would have done. Usually the answer is a good life, defined by you. Thank them by having one.