I remember the first time I visited the University of Georgia. It was the day of my freshmen orientation; exactly four days before the first day of classes were supposed to begin. I know, I'm crazy. And I already know what you're thinking: "How could I apply to school that I have no idea as to what it looks like?" Simple. Just because I didn't take a campus tour, it didn't discourage me from applying to the school. I have seen lots of people who apply to colleges that are out-of-state for them, and have never step foot on the campus. All they have to go off of is what is shown to them on the school's official website. I have also seen those same people, later attend that same school they applied to.

Yes. I could have easily booked a tour and have one done, due to the fact that I live near Atlanta; which is less than two hours from Athens. It wouldn't have been a problem, because my parents were more than willing to take time off from work to go with me. But the things is, I didn't want to. It wasn't the look or the feel of the campus that I saw online that drew me to apply here, but the fact that is one of the handful of schools in Georgia that has my major, Civil Engineering. Since I was limited in the choice of colleges to go to, I applied to UGA just because.

Don't get me wrong, now that I go here, I know for a fact that UGA is one of the best schools in the nation (and statistics show just that). But I have learned from life that the best outcomes come from unexpected and surprising situations. In my family, I’m known as the person who makes lists and expects life to go a certain way, based on how I map it. But in actuality, life isn't like that. There have been numerous instances in my life where a sudden change in events have led to things that were better than I could have ever expected. Take my parents for example, if they hadn’t decided to abruptly move to the United States from Jamaica, would I be here? Probably not, or maybe I would have, but we would never know. It‘s the unplanned things like that, that have shaped and molded me into the person that I am today, and I cannot wait for what the unforeseen future has for me.