My choice to come up to Michigan Tech was not an easy one.   During my senior year of high school I was able to get a co-op job at Dow Corning. After working alongside some professional engineers I decided I wanted to pursue a career in engineering. I would have liked to keep this position at Dow but in order to achieve this goal, I knew I had to leave home to earn a college education.   When I asked the engineers at Dow Corning what college I should attend, most of the answers pointed to MTU.   A majority of these engineers were alumni from Tech so I am sure there was probably some bias, however I took their suggestions seriously and decided to check out MTU.   One of the employees I worked with had a son who was just completing his second year at MTU. He suggested that I visit his son for a weekend to see the campus before making my final decision. I took him up on the offer, packed my bags, and headed on my way.   This was definitely the farthest that I had ever attempted to drive, and I had to do it all by myself.  

Leaving from Midland, Michigan I knew it would be a long drive.   The first gas station I stopped at I got a few candy bars because I wasn't sure of the next time I would be eating on the journey.   After a few hours I was getting low on gas and was coming up on the Mackinaw Bridge so I stopped to stretch my legs and fill the gas tank.   I was really excited about my weekend on a college campus with people I had never met before.   When I finally finished the 8-hour drive, my next task was navigating the town of Houghton.  

I passed the school(MTU) to go look for a grocery store because I was starving. Little did I know that there are no Meijer (a common grocery store downstate) stores in Houghton.   When I saw the ShopKo and the Econo Foods stores, I was not comfortable going in them, so I decided to wait.    Trying to figure out the yooper loop the first time was a bit tricky, but I managed.   The yooper loop is downtown where you can either leave downtown or loop back into downtown. I had a very good time visiting MTU's campus because I saw different buildings on campus and I also got to see some of the area around the town. Although I enjoyed the time in the U.P. I was definitely in a hurry to get back home to my family.   After this trip I had made my mind up, this is where I wanted to go to college.