Walking through the streets throughout Madison, Wisconsin, Mike Eggert is just the same as all the other business students striving to make a life out of what he has. Unlike the others, Michael spends more time in the library than out of it. Unlike others, Mike won a competition to go to Arizona and represent the University of Madison in a National competition. Again, unlike others, Mike was 1 out of 2 chosen from a group of over 500 students to study abroad on a scholarship to Copenhagen, Denmark. What drives this young man to be better than others? When asked about it, Mike responded with an answer "What’s the point of doing something if you aren't going to try?" One man with a dream and actual intentions of doing them. Michael Eggert.


This wouldn't be the first time Michael traveled to Europe. When he was 14 he was surprised by his grandparents with a once in a lifetime chance to travel to his Father's hometown. He spent a month in Germany traveling up the Alps and on through the oldest castles. He described it as one word, "unbelievable". Ever since the experience, Michael has been haunted of dreams made up of three things: sailing, football, and reliving the experience of a foreign land. Mike took advantage of these dreams and overcame all three of them. Not only is he involved in all of them but he is getting one for free. In the summer of 2009, Mike became involved in a sailing club and excelled to the point of getting his own license to sail.


As for football, Michael took a route only the truly courageous can go. Rugby. The most brutal sport known to man was now taking over the mind of my older brother. Within the first month of the new game, he was the talk of the team, being considered to being brought up to the varsity team of Madison. Unfortunately, Mike’s journey of rugby ended in a hurry after he got a concussion after his fourth game at the higher level.


"The most important of all dreams was to travel to a foreign land" said Mike when asked about what he dreamt most of. Mike set fourth and applied to study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Without even the thought of having a chance to study in Europe, Mike was called and asked to accompany 400 other applicants for an interview. Like all others Mike had to wait in line for his interview. I asked Mike if he was nervous while he saw other people coming out from the questioning. All he could say was "After watching the faces and responses coming out of that room, I didn't want to take a step closer to that door." After the interview Mike was not worried at all he said "I just felt so natural with the interviewers, we joked around. I don’t realize what everyone was stressing about." Michael was called right away for a second interview of only 50 applicants.


This was a bigger challenge than before and as expected there were tougher questions. What he had never expected was to wrestle one of the interviewers. Yes, he took the interviewer down for the count within the first minute. The room erupted with laughter and everyone gave the man crap for challenging my brother. He told me "the man challenged me and I took a jump at it. I wasn’t going to let him beat me." Well his strategy worked. Out of hundreds of applicants there really was no one better.