I have returned to my blog. I have a Master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering now. That's a fact and not a brag.
I never anticipated that after I earned my Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, I would enhance my college education further after having earned two Bachelor's degrees. It's funny how life happens while you're making other plans.
(My dad says that all the time, how life happens while we're making other plans...and it's true. It's not very original, though. John Lennon said it first to my knowledge, but truer words were never spoken.) LOL!
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
My latest post previous to this one was back in September 2015 and it was me providing tips on how to study for the newly computerized FE Civil Exam after I had finally studied properly and passed it myself. It is now February 2023.
So the big question that I would ask if I was a blog fan is, "What happened?!"
What I'd respond with is, "I'm human and other nerdy fascinations distracted me. I attended graduate school towards that Master's degree from Spring 2016 until mid-December 2018. I also nerded it up at one of the coolest jobs ever as a Graduate Intern working in the Las Vegas Valley Water District's Applied Water Quality Research Division for 25 hours/week every week like a badass. Therefore, I was busy keeping up with graduate school and my awesome internship working for wonderful people."
(Mind you, maintaining this kind of schedule meant being awake at all sorts of hours with crazy daily schedules every week (that I chose, mind you) and often feeling very sleep-deprived. But I still absolutely loved it! Oh, the life of a graduate student!)
Then, life happened. There were some ups and serious downs.
I obtained some work experience in designing improvement plans for four months. There was a gap in employment for job hunting again. Then, I obtained some work experience in environmental science for a whole year. And now, I am back to job hunting again.
Silly enough, my job hunting endeavors led me back to my blog.
I mean, I had to Google the name of my blog for a couple minutes until I found it. The reason I had to find it is that I applied for a Writer/Researcher job that required submissions of "published" writing material....and this blog is technically an online publication of my work, so I copied the link and submitted that as my published writing samples.
I still honestly do not know what they will think of this blog or myself after they read it. However, I might as well feel confident about it instead of fretting about not knowing. But let's be real, I'll probably vacillate between both feelings because I overthink and overfeel everything. LOL!
So I submitted the link to this blog to the job application and I'm still waiting to hear as to how I fare.
At first, I worried that my material from my blog might be outdated or say something too personal or not be in line with the beliefs of the person I am now. We all continue to evolve as people as we continue to age (unless you're Benjamin Button or maybe Samurai Jack...those situations are complicated).
I have been job hunting for a couple months, not really knowing what exactly I want to take on as my next employment experience.
Tonight/This Morning, I pulled up my blog and started reading some more of it than I did when I initially submitted it. I went back to posts from 2011 and kept reading various posts from various years.
I realized that a lot of those same concerns I had back from years 2011 to year 2015 when I originally wrote this blog are still the same today. As I read the posts and thought about issues I was having in my current life and feelings about past work experiences, I found the words of my past self holding true, inspiring my present self, and reaffirming that I still want to be a writer.
When I told my youngest brother about how reading my past blog was inspiring me on what kind of job I should be pursuing now, he said that it reminded him of the movie Inception (which I have never seen myself...but I understand the context, truth, and power to the allusion he stated). (Also, I should probably look into catching up on amazing movies that I have never seen like perhaps Inception.)
So, in short, I will return to writing my blog, since I enjoy writing (at the very least). If I am lucky, my writing will impress somebody and I'll be able to obtain a nerdy job (maybe in the fields of science, research, laboratory work, engineering, or something else) that allows me to write, make a living, and make a difference.
Writing is what I am passionate about and from one of my past blog posts, I still notice that I need passion for something in order to really succeed at it. I have also learned from past jobs, that having great coworkers who you feel comfortable approaching and communicating with is also necessary even if you have passion for the work. Like a cookie recipe, a happy life and career requires all the right ingredients to make the way we live our lives taste good.
Update (9/26/2025): I wrote the above post in February 2023 and never actually posted it until now. As is often the case, I am job hunting...again. I also shared my blog (this one) with The Mob Museum recently if recollection serves, in hopes of taking on a social media marketing role. I was email-rejected...as usual.
I have not worked in over two years. My mind is having trouble with the cognitive dissonance of realism. My main credential of note is my Engineering Intern certificate from the Nevada State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors that I earned in-between jobs back in 2015.
However, I have also been making sure to do the 8-Hour Annual HAZWOPER Refresher courses independently every year to maintain my 40-Hour HAZWOPER certification that I earned back on 7/14/2023 while working for the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) (because a whole week of training is both expensive and time-consuming...and I like maintaining this credential because I believe it sounds badass). Psst...I know how to handle a disaster of chemistry....in the field. ("23-19! 23-19!" - (Monsters Inc. HAZMAT scene ensues)) LOL!
Cognitive Dissonance of Realism: Traditional engineering jobs never work out for me. Since I am detail-oriented, methodical, and QA/QC focused, I excel more in a laboratory than in an engineering cubicle. Since my personality does not match the profession, I find myself at a loss. I also gave all that I could to my last engineering position and it wasn't enough. I was working from one to three hours extra every weekday and workday, studying and trying to become better at my position, in aims of merely keeping my job. When you actually try your best and it's not enough, it makes it hard to imagine a reality where your efforts are EVER going to be enough.
I also find that even when I apply for lab or field technician jobs that suit my personality better, engineering firms have other ideas for my career trajectory ("We were more thinking you could become an engineering staff professional...").
Sigh, I should have earned my first degree in Chemistry instead of Mathematics. Chemistry lab is where I shine. Accursed organic chemistry and my "only average" grade at it oriented me towards Math instead. I ended up taking the organic chemistry sequel in my senior year to earn a Chemistry Minor for my Math degree later regardless. Isn't that funny and ironic?! LOL!
I have been having self-esteem problems because nothing ever works out. I have reverted back to my antisocial introverted self of yore. I am at that time in Life Chess where all I can do is move my King back and forth between two spaces. I cannot move anywhere else, given my perspective of the board. Reality can sometimes confine and overwhelm us, when we feel trapped and defeatist.
On the upside, I learned and did some interesting stuff while I was in-between jobs since the last job I had ended. I independently learned how to use telescopes and solar filter attachments so I could operate the family telescope for two family solar eclipse trips (one trip to Utah in mid-October 2023 and another trip to Texas in April 2024). I wrote two poetry books and entered them into contests. I even learned how to make poetry book templates in Microsoft Word for my submissions.
Now, technically, I have not won any poetry book contests I have entered....yet. Even so, producing written work that I am proud of is definitely worth celebrating. If I was not in the state of mind I was in when I wrote the poems I wrote, they would not be the same as they became.
I did, however, win and place in amateur poetry contests online (for single poem entries) for the glory of winning alone. If I want to be a better poet, writing on PoetrySoup.com is both great practice and a way to inspire the kinds of poems I have never written before. It's like stretching for the mind. Link: User-friendly link to my Poetry Soup Page
I also started another blog under a pen name discussing various literary and political allusions in a sarcastic cartoon I enjoy as of Memorial Day weekend 2025. I had always thought about starting a blog on this particular topic, and I finally decided, "What the hell (chuckle)".
I also decided to beef the new blog up with images to break up the writing with some visually interesting art. I also did that simply because... it is fun. I'm a creative person whose parents encouraged her to pursue engineering, even though she REALLY wanted to be a writer because she loved to read.
Mash Burying The Vice Principal
Writing is my rebellion.
Being at a stalemate in the employment department has given me the time and freedom to pursue creative outlets that I might not have pursued otherwise. There is nothing more freeing than writing with complete anonymity. "I write what I want" (said with thug-like attitude).
I recently caught an old episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories (Season 4, Episode 25) on PlutoTV with a great quote in it, that I thought was brilliant. Susie Essman said there was a saying, "We make plans....and God laughs". LOL!
As much as I would like to say, "Try to not let it (failure) get to you", I cannot even convince myself of that. There are some things we can control in life, but there are a lot of other things that we cannot. Even if we fail sometimes and make mistakes, it doesn't mean we need to stand blindfolded in front of a firing squad. (Wait....is that a firing squad or a panel of people sitting across from me at a job interview...LOL!)
The last time I posted I was looking for a job on a social media platform, one of my relatives posted a response that was critical, my cousins came to my defense, and it was a lot of unanticipated drama. Hence, as much as using my Facebook or LinkedIn networks might have aided my job search, I did not want a repeat performance due to precedence (visualizing a Chess King piece moving back and forth between two spaces on a brown and white chess board).
Someone might be up there laughing, but really, "Who knows...".
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