On my first day of college, I walked into a new area, a new “home,” and a new beginning. I wrote this poem thinking of that day. I had the seemingly frightening opportunity of sharing my first year of college (and my dorm room) with someone totally different than me: a young man of German descent who was an avid rock fan, off-road biker, and computer wiz. He didn’t quite relate to my love for gospel and R&B music, football, and computer ignorance. I instantly knew that this college thing wasn’t going to be as easy as it had appeared in my daydreams. The transition would take work and compromise for me to coexist with others (namely my roommate). I’m a fourth year senior in Scientific and Technical Communication, and college has been an uphill road at times. However, the journey has been essential.
In this story, I will give you a little insight into who I am and how I have progressively become a successful MTU student academically and socially in hopes that it will help others on the same road. Let me warn you, it was a rocky beginning but the rough places were made plain through time, open minds, and learning to accept outstretched helping hands.

Let me begin by saying I’m a Detroit Native. I graduated near the top of my class from Cass Technical High School in the year 1998. I was somewhat under the impression that I was one of the brightest people in the world in my age bracket because everywhere I previously attended school I excelled and caught on faster than the majority of students. Because of this, I had tons of excess confidence coupled with poor study habits—a deadly combination. I quickly saw how this played a key role in my adaptation into the MTU environment.

I was great in high school. I excelled in every way possible in the classroom without much effort. Giving my all to homework was extreme to me, and outside of the classroom, study was almost unheard of. To say the least, college humbled me. My first semester I took seventeen credits pairing calculus and chemistry and thought absolutely nothing of it. To my dismay, these courses required intense effort and studying because the professors had this funny way of expecting students to know the material before they taught it. They frequently would skim through a section and hit the high parts adding the occasional anecdote and then moving on. I thought to myself, “Hey this is going to be great. The professors don’t cover much in class so I’m confident that they won’t expect us to know all this stuff.” I couldn’t have been any more wrong.