I came to Michigan Tech not really knowing much about the school at all.   I had visited prior to my freshmen year, but I had no real sense of what the school was really about.   I am originally from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and it is about a six hour drive to get to Houghton.   My first trip up here was in February or March of 2000 during my senior year of high school.   I remember during the drive coming to MTU my mom and I ran into a huge snow storm when we reached the Upper Peninsula.   It is usually a six hour drive, but on that night the snow was blowing straight into the windshield and we had to slowly follow the many snow plows.   You could barely see the road at all.   It took us about eight hours to get to Houghton that night.    This would not be the last time I would have to drive through such ridiculously crazy weather.  

During my visit I received a campus tour and also got to meet with a faculty advisor.   On the tour I saw the major buildings: the MEEM, Fisher, the EERC, the Dow building, as well as the dorms of DHH and Wads.   These names were confusing and all a blur during my short visit, but now they have grown to become part of my everyday vocabulary.  

After visiting Tech I was still unsure if I wanted to spend the next four years of my life there; or at least a majority of it.   My mom really liked the school and urged me to go.   I thought about it for a long time and after ruling out all other schools, I decided that I would attend Michigan Tech.   Even though I didn't know much about the school, I needed some change in my life and new experiences to help me grow.   In my mind I felt that this would give me an opportunity to be on my own for the very first time.   Being away from the "city life" and friends could help me to really focus on school.   That fall I would be packing up and moving to begin my journey towards higher education.

I came to Tech in late August of 2000 as a Mechanical Engineering major.   I was assigned to live in McNair Hall and I was told that I would have 2 other roommates.   When I arrived, the room was super small and I couldn't imagine living in such a space with three people.   Luckily one person never showed up.   My roommate was an international student.   At first we did a lot of things together.   As time progressed though, it became harder and harder to adjust to living with this other person.   I thought we would be more similar than different since we were both freshmen and minorities at this school, though I was wrong.   We had different styles of living as well as different views toward life.   I considered myself a clean person with good personal hygiene.   My roommate on the other hand didn't seem to be the same.   Sometimes it appeared as if he would go for days without a shower.   Another difference was that he was a Christian and I was not.   I didn't have a problem with his beliefs, it's just that whenever we discussed any random subject he would sometimes bring religion into it.   He also had some negative feelings toward the U.S., which sometimes I took personally since I was born and raised here.   As we got to know each other more and more, the difference between us grew.   I often tried to confront him about some of the issues we had, but he seemed to be a person who felt that whatever he thought or said was correct and he wasn't going to change his views.   As the semester went on, we talked to each other less and less.   This was due to our differences as well as our schedules.   In a way I felt that this was better because no large problems arose between us, but it would have been nice to have had a close roommate to talk to.