Alooooo-HAAA! Do I dare say happy Monday? By the time this is published, since I’m now six hours behind the east coast, you all should either be well into or nearly done with your Mondays, so it should be a happy Monday! That time change is really throwing my brain for a loop. I’m struggling with feeling like I’m behind the power curve, like so much has happened while I’ve been sleeping. Once y’all get done with daylight savings, though, at least we’ll be a little closer {we don’t do daylight savings in Hawaii}.
Scott and I have been busting our butts to get moved into our townhouse these past few days, so I’ve been pretty off the grid. While I was hauling boxes around {this counts as a CrossFit WOD, right?}, I was tagged in the Six Things post that’s been going around the interwebs by the fabulous Betsy of Betsy Transatlantically and lovely Erika from Chimerikal! It might make me a weirdo that I love these things and I love tags, but oh well. I’m dealing with my weirdness. So let me tell you a little bit more about the girl behind this little blog.
Six Things…
Q1. Tell us about a situation that ended with you feeling really proud of yourself.
When I was younger, I always thought the adulthood fairy would show up when I hit 30 and suddenly bestow upon me the knowledge and abilities of a grown-up. My fourth 30th birthday {I stopped adding – I just celebrate my 30th birthday each year} is coming up and I’m still waiting for the adulthood fairy to show up, but sometime during sixteen years of financial independence and eight years of being a homeowner, while I’m not fluent in moneyspeak, I’ve moved from the A-B-Cs to conversational ability. Things like mortgages, escrow, property taxes, and the like actually make sense.
That being said, I’ve been really worried about this Hawaii property we’ve moved back into. The only reason I still have the thing is that I bought it while I was here the first time and then the market tanked and I couldn’t afford to sell it. It was way too far underwater. Now it’s heading back up happily, and when the realtor who’s been doing property management for me while I’ve been gone walked us around it the other day, she pointed out all the good features and said I’d made a really good investment in the property.
Maybe that was the adulthood fairy showing up after all. There’s no other reasonable explanation for the fact that making a good investment filled me up with tingles of pride.
Q2. I always leave conversations thinking, “Oh man, I wish I had said that witty comeback but I came up with it too late!” When was the last time it happened to you?
It happens to me all the time. All. The. Time. I consider it a side-effect of learning to NOT say all the things that come to mind when someone says something nasty to me, of just keeping my mouth shut until I can think of something polite to say. That something polite never comes, so I walk away from a conversation and then think of the perfect polite-enough zing that I should have used.
I can’t tell the story about the last time it happened without slandering someone I don’t really want to slander, but let’s just say I know someone who is really passive-aggressive in getting her digs in, so much to the point that I almost don’t notice how bad they are until almost an hour later, when it’s really sunk in. I see red for a few minutes, and then, of course, think of all the equally-catty zingers I could have responded with in order to give her the what-for on her own terms.
As satisfying as those would be, though, I don’t think they would help matters. I think they’d only make me angrier and make the bouts more frequent. It’s better in the long run for me to just be blissfully ignorant, get mad when it sinks in, and then forget about it and move on. But oh, I would sooooo like to zap her with a good comment, just once…
Q3. Someone is giving you a full scholarship and a stipend to get a degree in anything, anywhere you want. Where would you go and what would you study?
The responsible part of me wants to get working on my second career! I’m eight years away from being able to retire from the Army and go into my second career, which is my current plan of action. If I do get picked up for one of the Ph.D. programs I’m competing for, I’ll be in longer, but we’ll see how it all goes!
Right now, the top contender is in Disney’s industrial engineering department. Systems and industrial engineering is the perfect mix of art and science. You need the numbers to figure out whether or not your idea is going to work, but you absolutely have to have creativity in order to come up with good ideas. And you need a sense of adventure. The IE folks at Disney don’t just work on the parks and the entertainment plans, they review the travel and resort plans, Adventures by Disney, and…everything. Does this sound perfect or what?? Who wouldn’t want to be traveling and adventuring, figuring out better ways to engineer happiness for people?
I’ve got two master’s degrees in engineering and twelve years of experience, so let’s fill in the other blanks. Let’s round out business administration, accounting and finance, hospitality administration, and the like. If we’re dreaming big, let’s go to the Marshall School of Business at USC and get an MSBA.
It’s worth adding that another part of me wants to take that scholarship and stipend and throw myself fully into photography. Better equipment, better processes, better software, and a chance to follow/apprentice with Peter Lik, who is an absolute genius. If I won the lottery, I’d pay off the house and put a Lik print in it, not necessarily in that order.
Q4. What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was eight years old, I was smacked off my bicycle by a drunk driver. Thanks to the doctors who put me back together again, I’m not suffering any ill-effects, save an occasionally temperamental left knee – certainly nothing that’s kept me from doing any Army task, including jump school and combat patrols with heavy packs. Because of this, I wanted to become a doctor when I grew up. When I was first applying to colleges, I was competing for pre-med slots, and if I had unlimited money, I might very well have taken that pre-med spot at the University of Chicago that I’d been offered instead of heading off to West Point. When I made the West Point decision, I had visions of competing for a slot at the Uniformed Services University of Medical Science later on and becoming a flight surgeon.
So what happened along the way? What happened to derail these long-term ambitions?
I discovered leadership, math, and engineering. I discovered I was good at those things. I learned that I loved leading and wanted to apply my knowledge in the field. I had a hunger to test myself against a different brand of challenge. I did complete my EMT certification a while back, and it definitely came in handy, but that was as far as I went in my medical career. My life went a very different direction. Now I’m a planner and an analyst for a high level headquarters.
Now that I’m older, am I sorry I went this way? There’s very definitely a part of me that looks back and wonders what my life would be like if I’d pursued medicine as a career, and part of me that wonders whether I should try to look into biomechanical engineering research or other areas of my field that go that direction. But at the same time, I’m able to effect decisions and policy on an extremely high level with far reaching impacts. I’ve had a chance to work with extremely smart people who are making decisions that will drive national policy.
I’ve always wanted, very simply, to help people. I think I’ve found a less direct but much farther reaching way of doing just that.
Q5. If you could be a fictional character, who would it be?
Hermione Granger. When I was a kid, I sat in the back of the class and didn’t answer questions because I was afraid of being singled out as the class nerd or teacher’s pet or making any comments that would rock the boat. Hermione doesn’t care. She sticks up for her friends and beats up on them when they’re screwing up, she shows courage and restraint both when they’re needed, and she gets some of the best zinger lines in the series. And if you don’t know who Hermione Granger is, shame on you, you muggle!
Q6. What actor would you choose to play you in a movie about your life?
Amanda Tapping. Her portrayal of Lt. Col. Samantha Carter on Stargate SG-1 is what I think of when I’m trying to think of a good leadership role-model for women. She’s not a woman leader, a woman scientist, or a woman anything. She’s a brilliant scientist, a decisive leader, and a supportive team player who also just happens to be a woman. The role seems pretty indicative of who Amanda is in her real life as well. Okay, maybe this answer is more about who I want to be than who I want to be me, but if I can narrow the gap, it would be a more convincing movie!
Tagging:
Jeanette | Love.Fit.Live
Lauren | Siddathornton
Alison | Get Your Pretty On
Cicily | Sweet Cicily
Emily | Blue Dog Belle
I’m mostly tagging these lovely ladies here because I enjoy their blogs and think you will, too! Of course, anyone can play along even if they haven’t been tagged, so if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged! Or if you’ve done a six things post you think we’ll all enjoy, link up in the comments! You can either use the questions I posted, or try these out:
- What’s your biggest pie-in-the-sky dream right now? Is it a place to live or visit, a dream career, family, a talent or skill, or just a state of mind?
- You can meet three people from anywhere in the world and from any time in history at the coffee shop for a chat. Who do you meet and why?
- Let’s say you win the lottery, sell a best selling novel, or something else happens that makes money no object for you. What do you do with your time?
- Describe the most recent time you felt truly in awe of something.
- What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s ever given you?
- You can spend a full day interviewing/interning with//job-shadowing someone you admire. Who do you pick and what do you do?
Hope everyone’s having a great day!
