A summer in reflection

Before the beginning of last summer, I told several of my engineering friends that I would use my internship at the Maryland Transportation Authority as a determining factor in my decision to stick with civil engineering. The internship was...interesting, but seemingly not enough to keep me on the path to bridge-building. I switched to aerospace engineering by the end of that next fall semester.

I had also told these same engineering friends that I would want to pick up an aerospace engineering internship the following summer to determine my interests in aerospace. I was fortunate enough to interview for a position at GE Aviation and accept an offer for this summer. And the internship, as it now winds down, has taught me a few things about where I want to go with my aerospace engineering degree. One aspect, though, always seems to crop up when I review my summer internship career:

I hate Excel.

Well, maybe not "hate", or else I would probably shudder with rage and disgust every time I was asked to perform a cost analysis via spreadsheet. But I am quite aware that if Excel were to digitally implode for the next several months, I would mourn for only a short amount of time. Very short. 10 seconds? Enough to sadly embrace the fact that almost every large business in the US was currently scrambling in a panicked and chaotic manner. (*end sadistic thoughts towards large companies*)

I expect Excel appears a great deal in every internship (at least the engineering ones), because the brevity of an internship as well as the lack of knowledge concerning engineering practices. In my department here at GE, Excel is critically important for all part information book-keeping. A little less of Excel, though, would not be a bad thing for me. Or at least, a little less of 3000+ engine parts lists.



If you had the opportunity to read my last post, you would probably have noticed it was a rant (something that NEVER happens in this blog *cough sarcasm cough*). That particular post was written seconds/minutes after checking my financial status online. Therefore, it was spurred purely by my emotion at that particular moment. While I do put some effort in to filtering my content for this blog, I do sometimes have my moments where I will say exactly what I am thinking at that time.

This sometimes - err...I guess more than that - leads to long, rant-like, complaining posts. And I'll usually label them accordingly in the heading. So when or if you happen upon that post, you'll know what you're getting yourself into. I had a friend say that this blog was my outlet for "creative bitching", and I completely agree. I *hope* I rarely say those types of things out loud, and if I do, I give permission to the listener to dunk my head in a vat of jet engine fuel. If you don't have that handy, then I'll settle for McDonald's french-fry oil.

But. These posts are not meant to evoke pity or anger at my situation, and are here merely for me to release whatever I have inside and for the reader to be entertained. Whether entertainment actually occurs is another thing.

I am by no means perfect.
I am by no means a failure.
If you choose to judge myself or my situation through this blog, then I can't stop you. But remember what this blog is, and that I am more than the words that form it.


Entirely random side note: I just came back from a meeting where we all got free Wendy's Frosties during the presentations. I'm still not sure why all meetings aren't like this.