Former Mandurah Magic player and Peel Regional Academy of Sports athlete Jaime Skeggs has touched down in North Dakota after signing a four year basketball scholarship at Minot State University.
It's not just a huge career move for Skeggs, but a personal one - with this marking her first time living out of home, her second time out of Australia and the beginning of her post-school studies.
Skeggs, who has been playing basketball since she was in year one, said adjusting to "college life" had been simultaneously terrifying and exciting.
She said while the training schedule in Australia was challenging at a few sessions per week, her new college schedule was a new level of tough.
"The training schedule is definitely a lot more intense. Here it's every day, we have pre-season, during season and post-season."
Skeggs said another difficulty had been finding a work/life balance between her studies and training schedule, particularly following a completely different calendar.
"It was pretty tough at the start - they start the school year much later in the US. I had eight months off of school, so trying to get back into studies was hard at first.
"I have a schedule now and can pre-plan because I know which days I have what and have gotten into a rhythm with practice."
Skeggs was first inspired to apply to college after import player Carly Boag joined Mandurah Magic and moved in with her.
Boag herself had attended Minot State University and spoke highly of her time there.
"I heard all about her college experience and also from other girls. I had some coaches tell me to look into it. I always thought travelling for basketball would be awesome."
With a tight-knit family back home, Skeggs said it was a bittersweet experience to be in another place, but that she kept in regular contact with her older sister and parents.
"I Facetime them every couple of days. It's sad but also exciting. They are coming over in December for a couple of weeks to watch me play and experience life over here."
Now settled into her dorm alongside her new roommate, who is also on the team, Skeggs said she was interested to see where the next four years of basketball and her nursing degree would take her.
"I just want to see what happens - maybe afterwards I'll go back to Australia and see how high of a level I can get to. But for now I want to see how much I develop."