A Great Update!

I received a few emails this week. I have been accepted to the masters in electrical engineering program at Long Beach.

First, I got an email saying "Thank you for choosing 'The Beach'" which contained instructions on how to register for classes. Next, I looked online and it seemed I had already accepted the offer of admission I was never offered and was listed as a masters student. Then, I got another email today with an official acceptance letter.

My professor came through. He got my application reconsidered and had me admitted. He must have been pleased with my performance in the class I took from him in the fall and the one I finished last month (despite my disaster of a presentation).

This is exciting! I feel like I am on track to do something great.

I remember how horrible I felt two years ago. I felt I was wasting my life. I can remember sitting in a park in San Francisco with my Associate two years ago, trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. After talking with him and thinking about the life I wanted, I knew I had to make some changes.

A month later I started taking a control systems class at UCI during the summer. I was still unsure if I wanted to do electrical or mechanical engineering. However, my jovial professor and the ways I saw electricity interact with motors convinced me electrical engineering was were it was at. Then I decided to take more electrical engineering classes at Long Beach. My plan was to continue to investigate electrical engineering and Long Beach as a school while raising my GPA for graduate school. After two semesters and five classes, my GPA was above their minimum. However, by the time I got my grades in May they had closed applications for the fall. Disappointed, I planned to apply for the spring semester. I took one class in the fall, with the intention of getting to know the professor who was the graduate adviser for the program, who I wanted to impress. While I got off to a slow start, I finished the class strong. Then, I discovered they were not accepting applications for the spring semester. None of the Cal States were, citing budget cuts. So I took one more class in the spring. However, the class was only one day a week. Most of the time I forgot about it the other six days. I did not put the time and effort into the homework, midterm, or final project that I should have.

Now I am happy. The work I have been doing the past two years was to get into graduate school. Now I am in.

I want to start things anew. I expect it will take two years for me to finish a masters degree and I want to be the kind of student I never was. I want to do very well in all of my classes, I want to be aggressive about getting to know professors, and I want to get to know some of the people in my classes. I want to avoid all the mistakes I made before. I am already on track to do all of this.

I have ideas about how I want to remake my life, and it looks like they are within reach.