The Adventure begins!

I made it out to San Francisco and have started my professional development days at De Marillac Acadamy. Next week I start my Vincentian orientation and after that I start my full time volunteer job helping with 4th graders and technology at the school! Its all very new to me an am realizing a lot about myself and how different a school environment is compared to a tech environment.

I am dealing with it all and I think will do well with the kids once I learn procedures but the one thing I don't think I will ever get used to is the WORDINESS of the atmosphere. I am used to tasks, numbers, important information, and a "down to the point" ideas. I am finding in the teaching world there is a lot of words and ideas given and then you have to process it all and come out with the end idea for the whole speech. This is very stressful as an engineer, but hopefully I will learn to deal with it.

I am not a man of few words, but I like to think that I pick my words cautiously when speaking to a large amount of people to make sure my point is well emphasized. Its a new learning experience, that's all I have to  say about that.

Being an engineer in a middle school (and 4th and 5th grade) environment, I think a lot of teachers and administrators have noticed some uncertainty in the way I am at the school. It's not so much that their is uncertainty, but rather the most basic things I need to understand about teaching aren't being discussed because to everyone else this is second nature. So many of the topics we have been talking about is high level discussion, improving your teaching skills, and how to plan your curriculum better. I know that I will learn how to teach and support soon, but its just stressful and frustrating how "green" I feel. Good new is though that I am going to teach an enrichment course and I think I will base it on basic engineering projects and experiments :)

Along with professional developement during the day, I have been exploring at night. I have been to the Golden Gate bridge and back (11 mile run with 1000ft climb), to the ocean a few times, Golden Gate Park, and Twin Peaks. Oh yeah and I went to AT&T Park on Monday and saw the San Francisco Giants loose to the New York City Mets too. You can see all of my pictures from these adventures in the links below.

My First Adventure in SF
Bike Adventures in SF

Riding the Rail

UPDATE: Find all my pictures in my Amtrak to San Francisco album.

I learned this last week Riding the Rail has two meanings, and I completed both of them. The one I would like to focus on though is my train ride from Omaha, NE to  Emeryville, CA.

July 27th 2012
It is now 11:30pm and my adventure begins and ironically I am exhausted already. All the packing playing celebrating, laughing, crying, and reflecting has exhausted me. I hope sleep does not evade me on the train.

July 28^th 2012

Yesterday I started a journey, one that I’m not sure where it will take me, but the one thing I do know is that I will learn a lot, meet new people, and hopefully understand where I am supposed to fit in the big world.

While I am writing this entry I am on the Zepher Amtrak headed to Emeryville, CA.

 This is my first time on a train and the furthest I have gone completely by myself. 

WOW the mountains are truly a spectacular site to see. Coming from Iowa it is truly a site to see how much man has accomplished to live in so many different places. I think school can only teach you so much about what engineers do, and then the marvels of the world can say the rest.

I was listening to a guide on the train and they were talking about how much work has gone into building the tracks and how they truly have shaped America. I have already known this, but to see it first hand, out of a text book is a humbling experience. The time, effort, money, and lives lost to accomplish a task we think so little of today. 

They talked about a tunnel that was 6.1 miles long and before the tunnel and the train were built it took 10 days to get over the summit of the mountain and now it is only 10 minutes! Can you imagine? 

Atmospheric pressure. Awesome. Unfortunately, the food my sister Erin packed for me was not quite enough to hold me over, but it helped majorly with cost because prices on the train are astronomical! I went to the dinning car to eat for dinner and the cheapest thing on the menu was $15! I had the chicken which was actually really tasty but it was not worth $15.75. It got me through the first day though. :)

The windmills remind me of home...

July 29th 2012

I cannot believe that I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. Late stop last night, early stop this morning and the time difference is starting to get to me. Oh and sleeping in a chair 2 nights in a row isn't a super awesome experience. 

I woke up to a new area, no longer the Colorado feel, but Nevada, dry dead Nevada. This was by far the most boring part of the trip. The one thing I did notice though was irrigating. In the midwest you hear of it, but you never really see an extreme case.

It really made me appreciate the midwest when I saw this. After sleeping through Nebraska, waking up to Denver, seeing Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento, I was finally in the Bay Area.

A train over the water! Train on the bridge! Awesome! I was actually extremely excited about this. To see old technology next to new, coexisting and doing their each unique purpose. Did I mention that the bridges in the Bay area are amazing? I will have to learn about the structures and how they continue to stand with the two fault lines in the area- truly an engineering marvel to me.

There is so much traffic here! we just had 10 lanes converge to 4! The bay bridge that connects Oakland to San Francisco is a double decker bridge which means traffic goes west on the top level and east on the bottom. Apparently this didn't hold up well with the 1989 earthquake and so now they are building another bridge parallel to the first on on the east side.. Extremely interesting.

July 30th 2012

I am off the train now, had dinner with Lisa Engler last night, walked home to see more of San Fran, and had a great night sleep. Things have slowed down now and I can breath. I have today completely free and start orientation tomorrow for the school I will be volunteering at. Then next week I head down to Los Angeles for Vincentian Service Corp orientation. Hopefully once all that is done I will be able to tell you all a little more detail about what I will be doing here!

I'm here!

Plan and simple, I made it to San Francisco with no complications. I'm currently on my phone so this post will be petty short. I got all of my bikes and luggage into my new place and was able to take a shower after a 43 hour train ride (more to come on that later). Unfortunately the people that were living here before me are still not moved out, so I will be in a room on the main floor for a week before moving into my room on the top floor. Hectic! More I'm headed out for dinner with Lisa Engler to welcome me to SF! More to come later friends!

Life is moving faster

Life is moving faster and faster for me now.  July 1st came around and I knew after that, there was no turning back for my life. And when July 15th came by, I was pretty much booked until I start my new adventure. Then this last weekend came, and it hit me. I’m leaving.

I think there are 3 times in a person’s life that you truly see how people feel about you. They are the death of a loved one, marriage, and moving. I have a lot to say about all three, but in light of recent events in my life I will stick with moving.

My whole life I have always thought that there was something more out there for me.  I have always had my head in the sky, wondering what was next. I’m still not sure if this is a boy’s fantasy or if it’s a mans goal, but the thing I am sure about is I will not give up. As I have told many in my life, I believe I have been given a unique opportunity and I’m not going to let it slip through my fingers. I am single, I don’t have any debt that needs to be paid immediately, I’m not tied down by a job, I don’t have any “stuff”,  my family is healthy, and so am I. I truly  can do anything I want to do, and I feel morally obligated to do so. If any one of those factors was false it would be a lot easier to make excuses to stay.

Despite this being my decision, it has impacted so many people... something I never really saw coming. In the last few weeks I have had many conversations, celebrations, “one more” drinks, laughs, and tears. The thing though that I have noticed the most is the  honesty in people, including myself. I have learned so much about my friends, my family, and myself recently and I credit that with me leaving. I think we get so caught up in our own everyday lives we don’t take that time to sit with those we love (including ourselves) and just have a conversation with each other and truly be interested in what the other person feeling. With ourselves, I think  sometimes we get so scared of change that we pass off those chances to try something new, meet someone new, doing something crazy, or just doing something as simple as talking to “that girl.”

I learned from a great friend of mine that the community around you will truly shape the outcome of your life. I have truly enjoyed all the conversation I have had with everyone in my life these last few weeks. You hauve made my life what it is... I mean its not everyday you see a catholic spontaneously organized drinking triathlete who’s past times include blowing on a trumpet, abusing his body in the heat, and praising God in a devoted way while continuing to progress in school and nerdy activities and in the cracks of all that quotes Scrubs That 70s Show, Star Wars, The Office... and still has some time for mtv.... I owe this all to you, the good AND the bad.

I challenge all of you to continue to living life to it’s fullest and continue to have intellectually stimulating conversations (between the dumbs ones) with others I hope to sykpe you soon to see your shining robot face over the world wide web!

A time to Change

It has been a while since I have written here and I seem to have a lot of ideas on my brain so there might be a dense period of blog posts.

Last week I started a journey that gave me a glimpse into what is in store for me for next year, and possibly the rest of my life. Next year I'm headed to San Francisco to volunteer for the Vincentian Service Corp at De Marillac Academy. This is an inner city school  in the tenderloin of San Fran. From what I understand from my trip is that this school was built in this poor neighborhood because of the need to have a school in the tenderloin. North of the tenderloin is Nob Hill (rich people), to the east is downtown (rich workers), and to the west is the shopping area on Market St. (rich shoppers). So obviously it makes sense to have the poor congregate right in the center of this, unfortunately this is how cities like San Francisco work.

Because I will be volunteering at De Marillac Academy, they flew myself and 2 other volunteers out this last week to see where we would be volunteering. Let me tell you, it was a culture shock on all levels for me. Being in a city that large will be a completely new experience for me. Working with teachers and not engineers will be a big change. Teaching and substituting in the classroom will be nerve wrecking. But. I know I will be needed and loved there. From what I understand I will working with their IT infrastructure and their development office to help with event planning, and when needed... teaching.

I could go on and on about this adventure, but I'm sure I will be blogging all about it this coming year!

In highest honors

Highest honors. This is something I do not have. I do not have a high GPA, I'm not in the honors program, I have no special awards, I do not have skills that are imperative to society, I haven't been nationally or even locally recognized for something I have done. Heck, I sometimes I wonder if any of that is even possible for some as average as I am. The world is a mean and messed up place and will beat you to your knees if you let it. But ONLY if you let it.

I am graduating in 2 weeks from the college of engineer at Iowa State University. In my small little world this doesn't seem like much, I mean, what do I have to offer that others don't? But taking perspective to a broader sense, I have potential. I may not have any honors coming out of college, but college has given me something by far more valuable, the ability to learn. To assess the situation and decide what is the optimal solution for the problem? Or at the very least, what is the best solution with the smallest amount of recoil.

A week ago I joined a special group of people, the Order of the Engineer. This is a society that members are to follow a code of conduct, to do what is right for society and humanity first, and what is good for the company second. This really made me think, I am entering into a field that truly creates the dynamics of our society. If I want to succeed and achieve my dreams, many ethical questions will be raised and I will have to make critical decisions, ones that will affect the lives of many.

I am ready, not to make a difference, but rather I am ready to learn to make a difference. When leaving college we may not be ready to truly change society, but one day we will be, and when we get to that point, will you be ready? One day, when you are faced with one of these choices, honors will mean nothing, rather your moral code that you yourself follow. Never forget that.

Obligation

I am an Engineer. In my profession I take deep pride. To it, I owe solemn obligations.

Since the Stone Age, human progress has been spurred by the engineering genius. Engineers have made usable nature’s vast resources of material and energy for Humanity’s [Mankind’s] benefit. Engineers have vitalized and turned to practical use the principles of science and the means of technology. Were it not for this heritage of accumulated experience, my efforts would be feeble.

As an Engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth’s precious wealth.

As an Engineer, [in humility and with the need for Divine guidance,] I shall participate in none but honest enterprises. When needed, my skill and knowledge shall be given without reservation for the public good. In the performance of duty and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give the utmost.

Where will life take you?

The question is simple, the answer is probably one of the most complex answers of humanity. Follow your dreams, conform to society, start a family, be an individual, make a difference, make enough to do what you love,  volunteer, give everything up, get your head out of the clouds and get a job, do what you want, do what you need, do what you family needs, don't get tied down, follow God and become a religious.

Surprisingly, I have heard all of these things at one point or another in my life. Most of the time in our lives upcoming choices are predetermined by choices we have made in the past such as having a family, choosing a very specific career, lifestyle, or even debt. When you need money your upcoming choices focus on getting a job, any job to allow you to live. When you have a family you have an obligation to support them and drastic life changes can be difficult. Having a very specific career can limit the jobs available to you and deprive you of opportunities in other areas.

For me, and a lot of graduating college students (if they choose to look outside the box) have a special opportunity in life, an educated beginning. Upon graduating if you have relatively low debt, are single with no kids, and have a willingness to try new things you have been given a great opportunity in life, something that I think should not be passed up. Realistically, if you played your cards right the only debt you have is low interest college loans which can be paid back over small intervals.

There is a snag though, one of which I have hit and never thought about in my 5 years of college: What if the world doesn't think you are ready for your goals and dreams? Interesting thought.

I currently am at a crossroads in my life. I see my friends getting married or starting their careers and yet I cannot see past 3 months in front of me. Plan for life as much as you want and even with an open mind, it will still probably change on you more than you expected.

"The sky is the limit." True, but you have to have a plane to get there and college only teaches you how to build it, you still have to actually build it --and fund it. I suppose I better get to work and not loose site of my dreams.