Aw, yes. Chemical Engineering my major and simultaneously the worst choice of my life.
I don't even like the word "Engineer". It's the "eer" part that sucks. It's like a queer or a musketeer or chandelier, I mean, those all suck. I want a career with "man" at the end of it. Like a craftsman or a rifleman.
Sometimes I'm reminded that my skills lie elsewhere than pointless formulas and archaic theory.
For instance, in my Chemical Engineering Communications class. This class is taught by an English professor, and is under the presumption that engineers can only crunch numbers and watch Transformers, and they don't know how to write.
As you should know, this is not the case with me.
We had to do a "writing diagnostic" thing the other day. Basically, we were given a prompt concerning an article we had to read the day before, and, in class, were given about 30 minutes to write on it, no sources available, and a laptop to type on.
I, of course, expounded a good 2 pages of material in that time, and true to form, I thought it was pretty revolutionary.
Today the TA, who is an English or writing major of some sort, was handing back our papers. He said that since this is a "diagnostic", it should only give you a rough idea of where your writing skills are at the time, and the point of the class is to get better. He said not to get "sticker shock" when you look at your presumably bad grade.
Of course, as expected, my writing ruled and did not go unappreciated.
Some comments made on my paper were as follows,
"A strong effort. Your level of nuance matches your proficient writing skill... You key in on Petroski's implications towards the engineering field in an amusing fashion. Michael, you have the skill to tackle tough issues in this class. I look forward to watching you do that."
Then I was given an A/A- (presumably because they want to make me think I can possibly improve.)
This positive reaction to my paper helped justify why the TA seemed to be treating me like the class star today; he even used me as an example and spelled my last name correctly on the board without looking
.
So, I was glad that my nuance was appreciated (I never even knew I had nuance, I just thought I was super fly.) And, maybe my teacher will be impressed when I become a Chemical Engineering turned Pulitzer prize winning author.
Oh, by the way, I want this on my tombstone:
Dying is not romantic, and death is not a game which will soon be over... Death is not anything...death is not...It's the absence of presence, nothing more...the endless time of never coming back...a gap you can't see, and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound... If you don't put it, I swear I'll haunt you up and down.
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