The first year was more of like a self-insertion to this new environment of the University of Minnesota and the state, and this year myself has been taken to a whole new level, academically and socially. Just a reminder, I was a transfer student to the University of Minnesota after my post-completion of Associate of Science degree in Hawaii, so I started my journey at the U as a junior student. Well, my first year was less hectic as compared to this year’s when I am entering my senior year. As cool as it sounds, senior year is completely the opposite of it. Degree and intensity of work are unbelievably challenging. This fall marks the initiation of my senior year, and I kicked off by taking 18 credits (6 classes), which are a sum of diverse classes which though interrelated, they require an exhaustive and comprehensive work on each to form a broader knowledge that constitutes my major. In contrast to my first year’s or any other college courses that I have to sit in before, this semester’s courses students are given the independence to be expressive in our works, or in other word teachers will do less and students are pretty much the motor of the course. It is good in way that you can picture how you will be in the real world exercising the knowledge you have acquired in college. Socially, I am not as outgoing as the previous year. This year I am dedicating more time to get my assignments done with a satisfying result, because I realize I did not put so much effort in the first half of this semester. Though, I am still intrigue with some mesmerizing sceneries out there, and with Nadia (2016 USTL awardees) here we can go together to explore some new epic places out there.

I am attempting to catch up with some left over experiences that I have not touched while I am here but most importantly I wanted to focus on my school more, because I want to graduate from college which is going to be in May of 2017 with a fruitful accomplishment, which is going to be useful for my beloved country Timor-Leste and family.