As stated in my “About Me” page, I am a transfer student. I originally went to school at Western Kentucky University (WKU) before I transferred to Central Michigan University (CMU). I attended for three semesters. It was my first time living out of the state of Michigan. I loved it down there.

The weather was warmer for nine of the 12 months, the campus was an hour north of Nashville and they have a great journalism program down there. So if I loved it down there, why did I transfer? There were multiple reasons so let’s break down my time down there that lead to the decision.

My Time at WKU

Let’s first talk about my first year down there. My freshman year went smoothly. I became friends with my roommate and a couple of girls that lived on my floor in my dorm. I would only drive home during breaks and would go home with my roommate for the days I felt homesick and couldn’t make the drive back to Michigan.

I did well academically during my freshman year. I maintained a 4.0 for both semesters. This made me confident in all the decisions I have made so far during my first year living by myself.

Then, first semester of sophomore year started and that’s when things in my life dropped at a steady decline. My classes were a bit harder than the previous semester, my roommate and I would fight on and off and I had to deal with tough family situations while being eight hours aways.

My mom and uncle were both struggling during this period in my life. My mom was in and out of the hospital due to her hip dislocating every couple months and developing problems swallowing food. My uncle was dealing with esophageal cancer. They only gave him six months to live after the diagnosis.

He stayed with us a lot longer than we expected. He lived almost two years after being diagnosed with this cancer. Unfortunately, he died October 25, 2018. The day before my birthday.

I couldn’t attend his funeral because of the distance. My mom didn’t want me spending my whole birthday driving back up for his funeral. She wanted me to try and enjoy my day but she didn’t know how much this affected me.

This was the trigger of my decision to transfer. I couldn’t deal with myself for not being there for my loved ones. Family is important to me and I had to be closer to them.

The fall semester of my sophomore year was the last semester I attended at WKU.

The Transfer

After going home for Thanksgiving break, I decided that I wanted to transfer schools. I wanted to go somewhere that was an easier and shorter drive but also somewhere far enough to live away.

I did my research on multiple colleges in the state to see which schools had good journalism programs and a school that is medium size.

After the application process and the acceptances from all the colleges I applied to, I decided to transfer to CMU. This was because it’s only 2 hours and 30 minutes away from me and I already had some friends that went to school here.

I am currently happy with my decision to transfer schools. I believe everything happens for a reason. Even though it was a hard decision to decide to transfer, but at the end of the day, I am a lot happier that I am closer to home.