This July, I said a reluctant goodbye to my Kansas City friends and coworkers to embark toward engineering graduate school . Garmin and KC were excellent places to be a new college graduate, thanks to their warm welcome, kind people, and down to earth, livable vibe. I miss the people, the work, the city, and the BBQ.

Now a few months later, I am thrilled to be halfway through the first quarter of a masters in mechanical engineering at Stanford University. Making the decision to go back to school after working for 2 years was nerve racking – and yes, I’m still getting wrecked by math after not doing real math for a few years – but on the whole, I’m excited to be here.

My goals are to take classes in mechatronics, including Professor Ed Carryer’s ME218ABC series, learn to code quite a bit better, study design both in a mechanical engineering sense and in a problem solving perspective, do research, spend some time dipped in the Bay Area, run/bike/hike/surf/ski when time allows, and to meet a ton of cool people.

When I started thinking about grad school and realized I had no idea what I was doing since I hadn’t seriously thought about the idea during undergrad, I reached out to dozens of people to learn about their experiences and how to go about pursuing my own. I owe much thanks to the people who let me pester them, gave me good advice, and helped me figure out how grad school worked. Quinton Ford, Daniel Borup, Anna Oldani, Sam Knoll, and Lisa Mazzocco immediately come to mind as people with whom I had multiple discussions that influenced my approach to the surprisingly nuanced path to finding the right spot.

Thanks to them, I think I’ve found a good one. I am excited to see what the next two years will hold for my classmates and me, shown at an orientation event above!