"I was the only person in my family to go to Notre Dame. In fact, it had been my dream for a long time to attend Boston College. Then Notre Dame kind of...happened. But it was an unforgettable and life-changing experience.
"I worked for four years in a work study at Notre Dame, and the wife of my manager had connections in London. When I told her I was going to graduate school in London, she mentioned that she knew people in the London program and would bring my name up for an AR application.
"Months passed...and I was pretty sure they'd forgotten about me. I was in Boston for the summer, working at an internship, and still didn't know what I was doing in terms of London housing. Then I got a call from the London office for Notre Dame, asking if I was still interested. I ended up going to London three weeks after that call, rather than three months. I arrived in Conway Hall a day before the semester's students did.
"My very first year here was a whirlwind for me. My master's program was unbelievably demanding, and I was surprised by some AR duties that I hadn't seen at the main Notre Dame campus. On my nights off, my friends love to hear stories from being on-duty. I won't go into detail, but some of the more entertaining ones involve walking in on unfortunate situations and a slightly-disturbing instance of defecation.
"But through all the funny stories and exhausted nights, I've stayed here for three years after graduating with my master's. I love it. I love living in downtown London; I love exploring the city. It's not easy being far from home--both home with my family and home in South Bend. London has certainly taught me to challenge myself and grow exponentially; yet it's incredible still to be connected to the Notre Dame family here. I love meeting with new students, hearing about their life on campus, and connecting with them to enrich their experience abroad."

 "I was born and raised in a Catholic family. My parents lived their faith wholeheartedly. And when I say 'lived their faith,' I mean that they would often take in a homeless individual on the street for a shower at our house. Growing up, this was the norm to me.
"I was a history major in uni, and grappled with my faith at that time. I asked myself: is my faith real? Whose it is: my parents, or mine? I stayed involved with Catholic organizations at uni to continue exploring my faith."
"The weekend before my biggest final exam, I decided to go on a Catholic retreat trip. Some of this decision involved less studying and a bit of a mess, but I ultimately got an A. More importantly, though, I had realized by that point what kind of role I wanted my faith to play in my life. Now, I work for a nonprofit and live in London's Newman House. While it's a far cry from the expectations for a history major, it is also my vocation."

"The very first time I met my wife, it was in Oxford over Thanksgiving break. My best friend spent a semester of undergrad abroad at Oxford and became friends with her; when I visited my friend over break, I was introduced to the woman who is now my wife. It was informal, and in passing -- she didn't even remember that it happened. At the time, it seemed to be an inconsequential meeting. Six years later, we were reconnected by the mutual friend, as I was spending the summer in Europe. She and I went to dinner and attended a concert. Two weeks later, the day before I flew back to the States, she and I took a walk along the Thames, in the neighborhood we now live in.

"We stayed in touch via Skype and email. We were only able to visit occasionally over the next few months. We reached a point when we decided we either needed to spend less time communicating, or meet each other in person and discuss the matter ourselves. When we did meet face-to-face, we decided to try to make our relationship work.

"After all this time communicating across the ocean, I flew to the UK and proposed to her while we were taking a walk in Oxford, the very place we met originally. We were married in the States; we now live in the UK. And the very first place we lived together was in Conway Hall, Notre Dame's London dorm. Now, I live with my wife and twin boys in Conway as the rector of the building.

"We'll be the first to tell you that it's not easy. It's not easy to have relatives and friends who live in a different country; it's not easy to maintain a relationship over time when it's not face-to-face. But you learn from it. You grow from it.

"I'm not much of a risk-taker, so I suppose you could say this was the greatest risk I ever took...but to me, it didn't feel like a risk at all."

           "What is a pet peeve of yours?"
"Easy: when people recite London's area code as 0207. It's 020, take a breath, and the next set of numbers starts with a 7. That's how they're divided. When someone divides them differently, it's especially difficult for me to remember due to my dyslexia."
           "You're dyslexic and you're a librarian? Can you tell me a little more about that?"
"I didn't learn how to read until I was around seven or eight. All my primary school teachers would laugh right now to know I'm a librarian, because reading was a struggle for me. But a teacher worked with me one-on-one to work on my reading skills and develop different strategies for managing my dyslexia. I typed, rather than hand-wrote, my tests--and ended up lugging around a giant computer the size of a desk every time I moved house. Even now, still use the strategies I learned then. In some ways, they've made me a better librarian, especially with copyediting.
"I feel particularly grateful to be in charge of academic accomnodations here at Notre Dame in London for those with invisible disabilities. I received the attention, help, and care I needed when I struggled, and I'm grateful to pass that on to someone else who is in a similar situation."