(no subject)
Ah, it's been a while. Let's start with a couple days ago when I first started to update. At various points, I was driving through the desert with my mentor in a company car, then stopping and examining pipelines and pressure gaugues wearing MY VERY OWN HARDHAT. There's a snapshot for you, dear reader. I have been working here in extremely sunny California for four weeks now as a facilities engineer in downstream operations (ok, ok, i'm an intern. but i have real projects!). So far, I'm really enjoying it.
1) I wear a hardhat. And steel-toed boots. And get bite-size engineering projects.
2) Unexpectedly, my coworkers are some of _the_ nicest people I've ever met. Seriously. My superviser is this really amusing mechanical engineer - he's one of those people who can make people involuntarily smile. He's at an ASME conference today and tomorrow, and I miss him being nextdoor!
3) My mentor is also amazing. He's only a few years older than me and was an intern like me, so he remembers what it's like to be the clueless newbie. Luckily, I ended up with a mentor with a really good sense of humor, so our office is a fun place to be. When I need an explanation of, say, fluid mechanics, he explains it well and knows what he's talking about. The rest of the time, and sometimes even _while_ he's explaining pressure drops through pipelines, we're constantly making fun of each other in a really goofy way. A note about my mentor: he is a very smart engineer, but he is also the type of person to krazy-glue his fingers together. True story.
Rewind. This past weekend, I went camping! Along the Pacific Coast! If you ever find yourself on the west coast, do yourself a favor and drive along highway 1 near Monterey and San Simeon because it is GORGEOUS. Around every bend in the road is a breathtaking view of the mountains meeting the sea with jagged cliffs and rocks and the ocean shimmering in the sun. I fell in love with exactly that last summer in California, and it still gets me how I had no idea when I would see this beautiful ocean again. Little did I know, oh how little did I know! And I love it, the unpredictability.
As I type in my room, sun is shining through the venetian blinds from my balcony. This time two years ago was a very anxious period for me. I was anxious about starting college, wondering if I really had made the right decisions, wondering if this engineering thing could take me places I wanted to go. Two years later, if I could sit down with my younger self and tell her what her life would be like, I would absolutely NOT. My younger self would probably have become quite agitated by this.
"Why? Now I'm even more so curious!"
"Because," I would explain, "you learn that the surprise is half the fun."
So whether you are navigating a bend in your car along the Pacific Coast highway or more abstractly a turn in your life, I hope you turn that corner to discover something breathtaking and wonderful. You couldn't see it coming, and that, my friends, is the point.
1) I wear a hardhat. And steel-toed boots. And get bite-size engineering projects.
2) Unexpectedly, my coworkers are some of _the_ nicest people I've ever met. Seriously. My superviser is this really amusing mechanical engineer - he's one of those people who can make people involuntarily smile. He's at an ASME conference today and tomorrow, and I miss him being nextdoor!
3) My mentor is also amazing. He's only a few years older than me and was an intern like me, so he remembers what it's like to be the clueless newbie. Luckily, I ended up with a mentor with a really good sense of humor, so our office is a fun place to be. When I need an explanation of, say, fluid mechanics, he explains it well and knows what he's talking about. The rest of the time, and sometimes even _while_ he's explaining pressure drops through pipelines, we're constantly making fun of each other in a really goofy way. A note about my mentor: he is a very smart engineer, but he is also the type of person to krazy-glue his fingers together. True story.
Rewind. This past weekend, I went camping! Along the Pacific Coast! If you ever find yourself on the west coast, do yourself a favor and drive along highway 1 near Monterey and San Simeon because it is GORGEOUS. Around every bend in the road is a breathtaking view of the mountains meeting the sea with jagged cliffs and rocks and the ocean shimmering in the sun. I fell in love with exactly that last summer in California, and it still gets me how I had no idea when I would see this beautiful ocean again. Little did I know, oh how little did I know! And I love it, the unpredictability.
As I type in my room, sun is shining through the venetian blinds from my balcony. This time two years ago was a very anxious period for me. I was anxious about starting college, wondering if I really had made the right decisions, wondering if this engineering thing could take me places I wanted to go. Two years later, if I could sit down with my younger self and tell her what her life would be like, I would absolutely NOT. My younger self would probably have become quite agitated by this.
"Why? Now I'm even more so curious!"
"Because," I would explain, "you learn that the surprise is half the fun."
So whether you are navigating a bend in your car along the Pacific Coast highway or more abstractly a turn in your life, I hope you turn that corner to discover something breathtaking and wonderful. You couldn't see it coming, and that, my friends, is the point.