Paved Roads

I might be resigned to making posts once a week now. Work is keeping me pretty busy, so I'll see how I can manage.

Last Wednesday, I received a call very early in the morning, which usually spells trouble. In fact, I typically dread any phone call for that matter, since it almost always results in more work. This time it was a manager asking if a local high school student could job shadow me for a day. So on Thursday, I met an aspiring engineer and I tried to explain to him as best I could about what my job entails. After a couple early morning meetings, I walked him through the 90-minute “bore-fest” version of the various aspects and intricacies of my job. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone as much of what I do as I unloaded on that poor kid. But, he was scheduled to be with me all day and I thought I might as well tell him everything up front and spend the rest of the day doing something interesting, rather than slowly and painfully lulling him to the coma that most people exhibit when hearing about my job. Granted, it keeps me awake since I have to bear all of the responsibility of it all, but without that I’d probably be in the same position as him.

That’s not to say that I completely destroyed his hopes of being an engineer. I think I did a good job in trying to foster engineering desires and encouraging him to really dedicate himself. He’ll probably end up doing something completely different, but so many of us don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into going to college. Because of that, I thought I’d pass on some standard truisms about college and life in general. It made me feel very old trying to coach someone about preparing for college and their future. My hope is that coming from someone closer to his age, he will keep my advice closer to heart; that it’s not as much about the destination as it is the path you travel on.

We spent our entire afternoon talking instead of working and I noticed he wasn’t on the verge of sleeping as he might have been earlier on. I know I will most likely never see the kid again, and probably never even stop to think of whatever happened to him, his hopes, desires or dreams. But it was an interesting lesson in perspective, because not too long ago I was once that person on the verge of entering an unknown world on my path to prepare for that inevitable career. The world was once my proverbial oyster to shuck. It’s somewhat scary being on the other side of that looking glass and seeing where I came from and what I have become. I like who I am now and where life has taken me, but day-by-day we all change and sometimes we just need to stop awhile to recognize where we came from and what we’ve become, while acknowledging those who helped pave the way. I’d like to think that maybe in my own way, I helped pave his path just a little bit.