In general, most of y’all don’t complement or complain on a routine basis about engineers. This is because engineers, tend to go about their business and do so without over the top efforts to draw attention to our profession. You don’t see us on billboards. You don’t see us on late night TV ads. In reality, you take most of what engineers do for granted.
Sure, the deep potholes catch your attention (sometimes you just need to slow your butt down) and the occasional bridge collapse becomes a momentary focus of national attention, but the successes far outweigh the failures and the routine they occupy in everyday life goes mostly unnoticed.
I see folks on here all the time complaining about or complementing one thing or the other. The food was delicious or the service sucked. Don’t buy this; buy that. On and on it goes, seemingly endless at times. Politicians tend to garner the brunt of the negative but that is because they are made up mostly of lawyers (That’s a joke btw…. see my point?). Regardless, when was the last time during a coffee break that you sat around and discussed how great your ABS braking system performed in that mornings rain or how amazing it is that this building isn’t falling or proclaimed “golly gee!”, I am lucky that everything was backed up on the server. Most, often you don’t.
So, regardless of discipline, be it electrical, mechanical, industrial, civil, chemical, etc. your everyday life is impacted greatly by applications and advances in engineering. In appreciation of this, we have our own Engineers Week, of which we are now at the end of and, of which I would bet that you didn’t know existed. If you didn’t hug an engineer this week, particularly a civil engineer, then you have not done your part to further mankind. However, I will make myself available over the next few weeks for anyone feeling remorseful for their oversight of such a notable week of celebration.
In honor of this week, I was asked by Becky Rehorn to provide a short essay on why I chose to become an engineer. What follows below is the PG rated version.
Happy Engineer’s Week to Cliff!
“I don’t think there is an overriding factor that led to my choosing to be an engineer. It was more a combination of equally weighted stuff. However, once the choice was made to become an engineer, the choice of discipline was an automatic.”
Growing up in a small town provided me exposure to any number of experiences that would later define me. The library across the street fed my curiosity, the creeks from the hollers provided a proving ground and the buildings in town became my castles. Prestonsburg (KY) has a river, a dam within the state park and, at the time of my youth a set of bridges, each having its own uniqueness of design.
Rainstorms, building demolitions and construction, bridge replacements, etc. were commonplace and accessible. Whatever was happening in town became a focus for an inquisitive and mischievous mind. You could plug a storm drain, dam a creek, throw eggs from the rooftops, deface freshly poured concrete or use partially constructed buildings as a fort. It was one big playground and looking back, the common thread was engineering.
My passion for life detoured the proper direction and I wound up never graduating high school and instead began working for a pipeline construction company. At $ 2.30 or so an hour, it didn’t take long for me to question my decision. I got my GED and, taking the lead set by my best friend, I entered a community college, a facility that had become a pipeline for engineering students to both UK and Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech had a common set of course that was shared by most disciplines. One of the first in this series was Statics, an Engineering Science and Mechanics course that would capture my imagination and cement my decision to become a structural engineer. This was my first quarter. My second quarter I was “forced” to take a 6-hour geology class that included a lab. I fell in love once again. Geology was great.
For several reasons, I was at Tech for 3 years (Following the two at PCC) including summers, allowing me the luxury of accumulating close to 40 more hours than required. I shied away from the puff courses and took most every civil branch and as many geology courses as I could, providing me a well-rounded education to go out and build the world. Instead, I went back to constructing pipelines. An education wasted? Not really, because from that point forward I have leaned on the education that was at one time an afterthought.
Today, our region is beset with challenges. Ironically enough these challenges can be partially attributed to poor engineering yet are best overcome by purposed and forward-thinking engineering. Such is the plight of our profession. As a whole, I don’t like the applied engineering as much as I do the promise of what it can deliver. To that end, the most enjoyable aspect of my job is not in the practice of the profession but instead is found in the promulgation of its endless bounds and the impact it can have.
****BTW – The featured image is the last known photo of Bill the cat before Sally(?) ate part of his nose.
Feel the Burg 