Back to normality

So it has been a little over 6 months since the Spain IRES trip has ended and I can’t help but continuously reminisce of all the great times I had for those short 6 weeks. Coming back to normality was not really all that difficult as I began adjusting to the same old routine of driving everywhere I go, speaking English to everyone, and enjoying free water when I go out to eat. This experience really opened up my eyes to a lot of things and it definitely allowed me to be more confident that I picked the correct major. Since I have already written about my incredible time and the things that I earned while being in that beautiful country (you can read my "Conclusion" blog post for that), I want to update my readers on what I have done since then.

For starters, I returned to school in August to take on my last undergraduate semester at UTA. This was by far my toughest semester and I was taking 15 credit hours which included senior design and 3 other design courses. It is safe to say that I did not have much free time as I tried to balance school plus work plus friends and family. Senior design was definitely the toughest class I had as my team was tasked to redesign a road in southwest Arlington that included three roundabouts and a whole new drainage and paving plan. Having very limited experience in civil engineering software programs, it made it that much more difficult to be able to complete certain tasks. With this being said, I believe that the IRES program helped prepare me for senior design when it came to the presentation aspect. Having to present by yourself for 20 minutes over a topic you learned in 6 weeks was pretty tough, so when it came to senior design it made it seem easy. A semester’s worth of work that only involved a 5 minutes presentation on my part was done with no problem. So after completing one of the toughest semesters of college thus far, I was rewarded on December 17^th with this:

Oh and some of my friends also joined me!

After graduation my family and I all went to Mexico to celebrate my accomplishment. I have not been there in over 4 years so it was really nice to see family and hang out with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We explored a bunch of little towns, celebrated the holidays, went hiking, and ate a lot of good food so I have to say it was a perfect graduation present.

Soon after returning to the United States, it was time to start prepping for grad school. Yup, that’s right; I am going back to school to receive my masters. UTA has a program called the Fastrack program that allows students to get dual credit for certain courses and have it count towards both the undergraduate and graduate degree. I was fortunate enough to be accepted into that program and took two grad level classes my last undergraduate semester. So with that being said, I was able to get a good jump when it came to acquiring my Master’s degree. The degree I am seeking will be in Structural Analysis and Applied Mechanics and I have the IRES program to thank for helping me be confident in that decision I was making. I am hoping to graduate as soon as I can (December 2017 or May 2018) that way I can begin working and building up my experience to eventually become a P.E. and contribute to helping structure to become safer and more environmentally friendly.

To sum everything all up, the IRES trip is the greatest experience I have ever had in my life. I have made great new friends, learned a marvelous new culture, and learned a global perspective in engineering that I will never forget. I will be eternally grateful for this experience as it definitely will have an impact on who I am in the future. I will check back in with you guys in about 6 months again.

Till next time,

Eric