The Key

When I left the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor I seriously questioned if I was making the right decision to travel to Central Michigan University. Leaving behind the friends and connections I had made and the comforts of home to start over new. I visited Central Michigan before the summer and I fell in love with the school and how it felt when people cared very much about my success, financial security, and well being. I was more than an ID and tuition bill but a person and a student first and foremost. I could see CMU being my new home. But as I left UofM I wondered if it was wise to leave a university known nationally for its medical research and a place in the fall Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program to go to school that was not as well known for research and where no one knew me. I wrote several teachers at CMU expressing my interest in their laboratory research and meeting with them. When I arrived I met with a couple of the teachers and secured a lab position. From there I was introduced to the McNair Scholars Program and the promise it held for students like me, applied, and was accepted. One of the most important lessons I learned from this experience is that opportunities are not given they are made. Life will always present you with endless possibilities but being able to see the doors open to you and have the courage to walk through them is the key to changing your own life.
I feel confident that as a member of the McNair Scholars Program I am where I am suppose to be. We had our first meeting today and I learned about my classmates and how the program would help us to reach our full potential. I was amazed at the generosity of the program and the directors who are willing to fund our research, conferences, traveling expenses, McNair classes, GRE preparation, and test. I felt comforted to learn that I was no longer alone and there are students who are motivated to work hard and have just as many questions as I do. We had the opportunity to tell about our past and what had brought us to McNair and listen to each other’s history. The stories that affected me the most were Maureen’s and Lynn’s. It is very rare to find people who talk honestly and openly about the fears and obstacles they had to overcome in their past and I was surprised at how much they mirrored my own. They understood how blind and confused I felt with no one to guide me through school because at one time they had felt that way too. I feel that with our common backgrounds it will be easier to confide in them and trust that my questions will not be considered foolish or that my character will be judged. I don’t know if they realized that their willingness to trust us with their stories meant so much but they did to me.