Hello world. A cliché for starting something like this, but it seems apt. If my rudimentary computer science knowledge is to be trusted, that’s what a computer artificial intelligence thingy is supposed to say when you turn it on. Now, clearly I am not a machine. Robots are cool and all, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet. Check in with me in the 24th century and we’ll see how things have progressed. But in a few ways, I do feel like I’ve just booted up and am gazing out at the world.
First, a little background. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, although for all the time we spent in “the city,” it could have really been anywhere. I went to public school, and despite the stereotypes, I actually got a pretty good education. I have been a good student for as long as I can remember, and I did really well in class. My scholarship essays from this time talk about how good I was at math and science, and though that’s true, it’s really not the entire story.
You see, while I was in high school, I absolutely decided I wanted to be an aerospace engineer. My family had gone to the biggest air show in the country, Airventure Oshkosh, and after that I was hooked. It sounds corny (and did make for good essays back then), but it is as close to true as I can remember. I won’t repeat the whole story here, because I actually think I articulated it better back then, but the sights and sounds of the show drew me in. From the gleaming curves of the airfoils on the Cessnas to the thunderous roar of the fighter jets screaming by overhead, it really didn’t take much.
So I did it. I went to a darn good engineering school for six years and got two degrees proclaiming me a master of this discipline. I learned a ton and had a blast doing it, but that’s not the point of today’s post. Maybe another time. I got an internship, which led to a full-time job in the aerospace industry, and every day I spend 8 hours working on ways to make really heavy things capable of flight. Which is a neat thing to be able to say. Most of the time I like this job and my chosen path quite a bit. Sure, there are occasional frustrations with software or specific projects, but most of the time it goes well and it’s a decent way to spend 40 hours a week.
All of this is leading to a point, I promise. What happened is that as you’re on your way to becoming an engineer, lots of other areas get pushed aside and forgotten. I tested out of most of my social sciences and humanities in college, and I was only required to take a single semester of English. That’s fine, incidentally. If you’re in training to become an engineer, you don’t really need much of those subjects. You need lots of aerodynamics and structural analysis and flight controls, but if you can’t put words together in a creative way or identify some arbitrary animal species or discuss economics intelligently, no worries.
But I was actually good at all of that stuff, too. Going back to the essays I wrote in high school talking up my math and science abilities, I never mentioned that I was also capable in discussing literature, or passionate about the environment, or really into budgeting and making lists. It didn’t seem relevant to what I was sure I wanted to do, so I ignored it. For six years in college I ignored those subjects, and continued to do so for the three years since. And now, when I think back to those forgotten areas, I realize that not only was I good at them, but I liked them too. And I want to do something about it.
I want to expand my horizons. Beyond the world of engineering aircraft parts. Because as fulfilling as that is, like I talked about before, it only really satisfies one side of my brain. My right brain has been locked away in solitary confinement without sustenance, and lately it has started screaming to be let out. I need a creative outlet. My left side is happy 8 hours a day, and the right side has had about enough. Time to balance things out a bit. This blog is going to be the start.
What do I expect out of this? It’s a baby step into bringing my creative side out, so I don’t want to get too carried away. I’ve tried recently to force myself into writing a story, and I think it was just too much, too soon. Writing a blog is more straightforward, but still, I think, a worthwhile exercise. Getting ideas down in a coherent manner, simply gaining practice in writing again, will help me out eventually. I need these wobbly baby steps before I go out and run a marathon.
Right now, I plan to check in about once a week with a new entry. Of course, that will vary a lot with busy weeks here and there. Also, the cynic in me wonders how long I will keep this up, but an entry a week is the goal. I’m thinking each entry will be musings of mine, based on what I’ve seen, done or thought about that week. To be perfectly honest, I doubt this will be of interest to anyone but me. But we’ll see. One step at a time. At the moment, I’m writing something, which is more than I’d done for almost a decade.
Reading back, this entry looks pretty rough. It’s choppy, meandering from idea to idea with a marginal thread holding it all together. It is my hope that in a year I can look back at this and laugh, seeing how far I’ve come. After all, a computer’s artificial intelligence starts off with a mere two words, and if the movie Terminator is to be believed, they make a lot of progress really quickly. Let’s see if I can match that. Hello, world, indeed.
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