Background

I am a person that trusts my foresight.  Now, I am not claiming to have ESP or anything, I just get a feeling when something is right or wrong.  Senior year of high school I could see myself at Ithaca College, and only Ithaca College, the next year.  The same thing happened during my freshman year at Ithaca.  But something changed last year; I can't exactly narrow it down to a few things, but the feeling changed.  It was then that I knew I needed to change too...

As any other high school junior, I made lists of colleges I wanted to attend.  As any other parents of a high school junior, my parents weren't so keen on me going far away for college, so most of the list was comprised of schools that were within a 5 hour driving radius. My true dreams could not be contained by a 5 hour radius, so I made a list of schools that were farther away and would require more work.  Here is the list:

• UCLA
• UC-Berkley 
• Imperial College London
• CalTech
• University of Southampton
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Oxford 

I had always planned on transferring out of Ithaca in my senior year to Cornell University, but I felt that with everything changing around me it was important to make a change now.  So, I started emailing universities in the USA and checking the transfer profiles.  Most schools said "no" or just never responded.  Frustrated, I went back to my old list; I would send two more emails, one to Imperial College London and the other to Southampton, and if I didn't get the desired response I would give up.  Imperial College London said that they would be happy to have me but I could only start as a first year student, this was problematic because I had already completed the classes in the first year.  Southampton responded a day or so later with fantastic news, I could start as a second year student.  This started a long exchange of materials back and fourth.  I sent them transcripts, profiles, works, research papers, the kitchen sink, and so much more.  Finally, after applying, praying, and waiting, I was eating lunch with my fellow interns in Intelsat's cafe on June 25th when I feel a buzzing in my pocket.  I look at my scratched up blackberry and I scroll over to the mailbox where an email from Eric Cooke is waiting for me to read.  We had been emailing back and fourth about various things, including my qualifications for starting in part II (second year).  This email was different; I fell off my chair when I read it.  I was in!

After finally convincing my parents that this was the right thing to do, we worked everything out and here I sit, just 7 days away from a new life, a new experience, and a new continent! Now I am just waiting for my UK Visa to finish processing and I'm off to the land of Queens, black cabs, and the English accent.  I have a whole array of emotions that run through my mind every day; excitement, nervousness, happiness, and a sense of diving headfirst into the unknown.

Some details about what is going on:

• I will receive my Master of Engineering in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in June 2013
• I've never been to England
• I will be living in the Wessex Lane flats in Montefiore 2
• I fly out of JFK on Monday, September 20th to Shannon, Ireland, then from Shannon to Heathrow on Tuesday, September 21st.  
• "Soton" is short for Southampton

I hope you enjoy this blog, I will try to update it as much as possible during my 3 years at Southampton!