If You Can Be an Engineer, Then You Can Be Anyone
As I am concluding my time here in college as an engineer, I have learned many invaluable lessons. The most significant and valuable are the following:
- How and what to prioritize
- How to problem solve
- How to endure
If you were to show me this list to my past self telling me that these were the most valuable lessons I got from college, I would have had an averse reaction saying something like "$60,000 to learn how to problem solve? You dont need college for that." And you know what? I would have been correct. Nevertheless, college was the route that I fell into that taught me these skills, and given that I had little to no future plans (other than I hope to one day start and own a successful business), it was one of the better paths I could have chosen. I digress.
And as I wade through life, I am discovering that these skills are the core skills to achieving any goal. Anything you want in life falls under these 3 steps. Therefore, if you master these 3 skills, you have the tools you need to become whoever you want to be.
Engineering school is tough. It's truly a furnace, that can forge you into hardened steel if you let it. To be able to get the most out of (and honestly get through) the engineering program, I started to develop the ability to prioritize, problem solve, and endure. And why are these skills so valuable? Because they are meta-skills. They are a skillset that assists you in acquiring new skillsets which makes you an adaptable person. That is freedom. The freedom to be able to learn anything you want makes everything a choice.
Therefore I believe that if you have the ability to successfully become an engineer, you certainly have the skillset to become anyone you choose.
