After high school I went into the Navy. I wasn't ready for college and there was no way I wanted to waste away in my tiny little home town. After the Navy I still wasn't sure if I was ready for college, but I had the money to pay my own way, so I went.
I started at Highline in the Fall of 2003. As I worked through my classes I began to enjoy the subjects I learned. I had fun talking and learning with my classmates and teachers. And I began to have more academic success that I ever had had before. I began to identify personal interests, and, yes, personal talents as well. I even joined the Honors Program at Highline Community College, took Honors 100, and worked on an academic resume and a personal statement. During that year I started to dream of studying architecture at the University of Washington.

My second year at Highline, because of advice from a UW architecture student that Dr. Clinton of the HCC Honors Program got me in touch with, I began taking prerequisite architecture classes at the U.W. campus in Seattle, as a non-matriculated student. Driving back and forth every day for classes was difficult, but I managed to keep my grades up. In fact, I kept my grades up high enough to finish the HCC Honors Program, get my last quarter's credits tuition free, and graduate from Highline as a Highline Honors Scholar, with a 3.9 GPA.

This summer, I was delighted to learn that dreams can become reality; I got accepted to the architecture program at the University of Washington and will begin there in fall of 2005.