This is National Engineers Week. Did you know that Engineers Week is celebrated the week of President’s Day in honor of President George Washington who is considered the nation’s first engineer?
I remember learning about George Washington in the first grade. Also in first grade, my sweet teacher, Miss Kelly, asked all of her students “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Some kids knew right then and there in first grade, at the age of six, what they wanted to be when they grew up.
I too knew what I wanted to be when I grew up but it sure wasn’t an engineer!
I also knew at six years old that I would be a Clemson Tiger. But that’s a story for a different day. My blood ran orange when I was six years old and it still does today! I was going to attend Clemson University and that was that. End of story. I wasn’t willing to even consider another college. I’m not sure what I would have done if my father hadn’t let me go to Clemson, but thankfully he did.
So on a hot and humid August day after graduating from high school, I packed all my worldly possessions in my little car, drove down our long driveway and headed for Clemson.
When I entered Clemson, I had to declare a major. But here’s the thing. I didn’t declare my major in what I wanted to be when I grew up. Instead I declared nursing as my major. My logic was that I would be able to make a living in nursing. My father made no comment about that major.
Once at Clemson and comfortably settled into my dorm room, I bought the big ole nursing book we needed for “Introduction to Nursing” and dutifully went to every class. Every class that is until the day the professor said “at the next class we’re going to start learning about giving injections.”
Injections, as in shots!!! I was (and still am) terrified of needles! What was I thinking when I declared nursing as my major? I ran across campus to Sikes Hall and dropped that course and told them I needed to change my major. There was no way I was going to learn anything about giving injections!
The only problem was though, that I had to declare a new major. So I chose Elementary Education as my new major. That evening I called my Dad and told him I had changed my major from nursing to elementary education. He said very little about my new major. He simply let me pursue it.
The next semester started and I began attending the “Introduction to Elementary Education” class. And I was also assigned to be a teacher’s aide at a local elementary school one day a week. By the way, this is a brilliant strategy to introduce students early so they can see if they like it. After a few weeks of being a teacher’s aide I discovered I didn’t like elementary education either!! And it’s not like I was a teacher's aid five days a week. It was only one day a week!
But I knew for sure I wouldn’t be an elementary school teacher “when I grew up”. I have tremendous respect for women and men who become elementary school teachers. I believe teaching little kids is a calling for many people. But let me tell you, it wasn’t my calling! God gifted me with various talents and abilities, but teaching little kids wasn’t one of those gifts!
Now I had two problems. First, I knew I was going to have to call my Dad to tell him about this and I would have to declare a new major. So one day after leaving the elementary school and returning back to my dorm room, I worked up the courage to call my Dad. I told him I just wasn’t cut out to be an elementary school teacher, just like I wasn’t cut out to be a nurse. He listened patiently.
I asked my Dad, “what do you think I should major in?” And he replied “What about Engineering? I’m an electrical engineer and I believe you’ll do really well in that major.”
And just like that I had my new major. Engineering. My Dad’s recommendation wasn’t some random idea. He had patiently waited until the right time to provide me the guidance he knew I needed. The time when he knew I would be receptive to it.
My Dad knew me better than anyone. I was the baby of the family, by a wide margin, so I had a lot of my Dad’s undivided attention. I grew up on a farm and I helped my Dad with a lot of the chores. I tilled the garden, helped build our new house when I was in high school, bush hogged with the tractor, baled hay and helped my Dad fix things when they broke. My Dad could see my abilities that as a teenager, I couldn’t see.
Also on that call, my Dad told me “that teacher is depending on you as her teacher’s aid. You can change your major but you’ll finish out this class and your responsibilities as a teacher’s aid." And I did.
When I returned to campus for my sophomore year, my new major was Electrical and Computer Engineering. And I loved it. Was it hard? You bet it was. But that too is part of my personality. I love math. I love problem solving. I love a challenge. Did I spend a lot of time in the library studying with fellow engineering students when I could have been enjoying a lot of extracurricular activities? Indeed I did!
And even though engineering was about as far from what I wanted to be when I grew up, I knew engineering was for me.
According to what I’ve read, George Washington, our nation’s founding father, had a vision for engineering. My father had a vision for me in engineering. And I’m so grateful he did. I wish he was still alive today so that I could share these memories with him one more time.
That’s how I became an engineer “when I grew up”. The rest, as they say, is history.
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