Engineering? Really?

I think I was the only one in my family that was surprised when I announced that I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering. I had wanted to be all the usual things growing up, a teacher, a veterinarian, a paleontologist (okay, maybe not "usual" unless you really like dinosaurs), and as I grew up I moved away from those and started looking at less usual things. I have wanted to be a teacher for deaf students (I'm gonna blame this one on my favorite book), a criminal psychologist, a dog trainer, and a few other oddities.  I always wanted to be what interested me the most at the time, but unfortunately things don't tend to hold my interest for long. 

When I told my parents that I had decided on mechanical engineering they both said "finally!” but not in a "you finally made a decision" way more of a " you finally listened to what we have been telling you forever" way. Once I made the decision to study engineering I was able to see the little things my parents had done to help me realize that STEM related studies were what I needed to go with. I had always thought my strong suits were in English and literature, and they are. I read constantly and far above my grade level (It’s always fun telling your elementary school teachers that your favorite author is Jules Verne or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.), and once motivated I find writing extremely easy and that I am not terribly bad at it(hopefully). My belief that my skills in the fine arts far exceeded those of the STEM subjects was brought on by the fact that I always tested out of my expected math level, and then proceeded to struggle in a math class that required more effort from me than I was accustomed to. My mother saw that I was excelling in math early on and enrolled me in summer school classes, so that when I entered high school I was not one but two years ahead of my classmates in math. I should have taken this as an obvious sign that I was good at math, but because I struggled in those classes I believed I was bad at math (yeah, I know, I was dumb). My father also tried steering me in the right direction. I remember having conversations with him during which he tried to get me interested in studying some kind of specialized harbor engineering. I believe my response was "I don't want to go to school for something that doesn't interest me, plus I don't really want to do anything engineering" after which I promptly went back to watching an incredibly fascinating documentary about how canal locks were invented and implemented (face palm!). 

I think my biggest motivation and shove in the right direction came from my father. I love to work with my hands, but being against STEM fields at the time I figured I would find hobbies that let me work with my hands while I had my career. My dad showed me that the two could go together quite nicely. We started a project together to restore his high school car. It took us a few years but when we were done we had a shiny 1966 Ford Mustang and I had a new desire to know how things worked and how to make them better (more on the mustang later because I can go on for days about it). 

It was the car project that finally made me interested in exploring STEM fields and caused me to do my high school mentorship project on mechanical engineering (I will also talk about this later). 

I know a lot of people will tell you that you don't have to listen to what your parents say about what you should study, and this is true to an extent. If your parents want you to be a doctor and you hate blood and needles you probably shouldn't be a doctor. You also don't have to take their entire suggestion; my dad wanted me to be some kind of harbor engineer for crying out loud!! Your parents know you the best, they have know you your whole life, and they have seen every one of your triumphs and failures, the probably know what they are talking about. 

(Feel free to leave comments, let me know what you are studying or studied and how you decided on a major, also make sure to follow this blog and have a great day!)