Assignment 6 - Gloria Dietz

           I grew up with two university professors as parents.  There were two people in my home at all times trying to make me learn new things, get me ahead of the rest of my class, and prepare me for college, since I was a baby.  I specifically remember at least ten different times when I was around 6 years old and my dad tried to explain calculus to me when we weren’t even talking about anything related to math.  When I was in kindergarten I wasn’t watching Barney and making friends; I was watching Cyberchase and saving the galaxy using math. 
           I grew up an academic.  My parents weren’t the only ones responsible; I truly liked learning new things.  Unfortunately, as I grew up, my parents tried to sway me to their respective fields.  I know what you’re thinking “unfortunately?”  Well, the problem was that I actually was drawn to my dad’s field: engineering.  The fact that he was the one who introduced me to the field of engineering (his specifically being computer science) and that I didn’t come upon it myself, had always kind of haunted me.  It made me wonder if I truly chose engineering or if it was him who chose it for me.

One day I looked over at my dad’s at-home office and asked myself why I wanted to be like him, to be an engineer.  And then, I realized that engineering was all about creating and designing new things that could help people.  You could do almost anything imaginable.  Engineering was for the inventive.  There were no limits on what was possible.  Unlike most science, it wasn’t about trying to understand already existing things in our world, but creating new things for the benefit of humanity.  That’s when I realized my dad hadn’t chosen the subject for me, but showed me how much I could do with it and that it was so unique from any other subject I could pursue.  Armed with the knowledge of engineering’s infinite possibilities, I chose it as my main focus for college.  I’m sure as I progress through college I will discover exactly what field of engineering most appeals to me, but for now I’ll keep my mind open.