Driving further and further away from the cities and towns that I called home, away from the suburbs of Detroit and away from the friends and family I grew to love was a very daunting experience. As I rode passing city after city my mind began to drift to the idea of college. How it was going to be, would I make friends easily? What kinds of things would happen? Would I be able to deal with people from different cultures, backgrounds or economic standing? These worries filled my mind on my long, long ride from Farmington Hills, Michigan an upper middle class suburb of Detroit to the small town of Houghton, Michigan. These along with many other thoughts went through my head sitting in that van, waiting for a sign or a signal that we were approaching Michigan Tech, the place where I was intending to spend the next four to six years of my life. Finally, amongst all the trees, I saw a green sign that said “Houghton, Michigan”. I was overjoyed and nervous all in one instant. As my father pulled into the parking lot of my dorm, my whole body began to sweat, I felt unsure of myself, I was finally here, but the idea of being here so far away from home, soon to be away from anyone that I knew scared me. I gathered myself, took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. As I stretched my legs, preparing to walk into my new home, I then realized my time at Michigan Technological University had begun.

Throughout my time here at Michigan Tech I have had many experiences and situations that not only have changed me, but also have changed my perception of other people. The first problem that I remember encountering here at Michigan Tech was with classes, and the placement that I thought I should have, as compared with my actual placement. As many first year students know, a student’s placement into a math course at MTU is strictly based on your ACT score. Thus, if you do not place into Calculus you can guarantee that you will be at Tech more than four years, because calculus is a pre-requisite for everything, if you are an engineer. However, my score was in the range where I would be placed in the class before Calculus (Data Functions and Graphs). Now from everything that I had heard, and from every handout that I encountered that is what I was led to believe. This was a little blow to my self-esteem, but I could handle it. I mean I was a typical Michigan Tech student in the top 10 or 20 percent of my graduation class, taking just about all advanced placement courses, and still breezing through high school. So, taking a step back from Calculus for a semester would be ok. This mindset was completely changed when I saw my schedule and read what math class I was in. I recall my initial reaction very well; “What in the world is ENG0950? I was told to go talk to my advisor about this class, and see what it was. I actually felt nervous about what the outcome might be. Would my advisor say “Oh we meant to put you in Calculus; I’ll put you in right now.” “There you go Robert have a great day!” Or, would it be the exact opposite “Ha ha ha that is the lowest math class here at Tech. Your gonna be here forever HA HA HA!