About the Author

I am a 2013 graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I spent the first 18 years of my life living in Lenoir City, Tennessee. Up until, I went to collage I had never live anywhere other than Lenoir City, Tennessee. I decided to attend my parent's and paternal grandfather's alma mater of University of Florida. So I moved 8 hours and two states away to Gainesville, Florida to attend college. I have to say this was the best decision I ever made.

It took me away from everything I knew and out of my comfort zone. I had decide to make it easier to meet people, I would live in the dorms. I choose to live in East Hall which is the University of Florida Engineering Community. East Hall had four floors. Two were female and two were male. On the female floors about 50% of the girls were in engineering and I quickly made friends with several girls on my floor. The core group of us made up the East 2 sisterhood and despite the many things in college we were always there for each other. I joined the Fencing Team, and for three years it was great fun until I had to choose between class and fencing. Class won much to my chagrin.

The summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college was spent working in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington. Where I hiked over 200 miles and visited 6 other national parks and had some amazing experiences and met people from all over the world. For more info on this summer please see my other blog. The next summer was spent taking college classes in Florida. The following summer was spent working for a small engineering firm in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I enjoyed working for this firm but it wasn't quite how I saw my life.  During my trip to, during, and from Colorado, I visited 17 National Parks in 6 different states  My final summer was spent working at the University of Florida.

I accepted a job working working for Schlumberger in the Drilling and Measurement Division in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. This blog is about my transition from college student to expat, and my adventures, trial, and tribulations.