Re-Tooling TBL

For several years TBL was a blog where I wrote about a wide variety of topics. Those postings are still in the Blog Archive and many are about professional development for engineers. I am now transitioning TBL to be a place where my current and former students can find information related to job searches.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

My experience in life is that grief and pain slowly diminish over time. Kind of like watching a baby grow - you don't notice the difference day to day, but after a month they've grown significantly. Eventually the grief is no longer the first thing we think of when we wake in the morning.

I sure don't notice a difference between yesterday and today. In fact with the news of the package being mailed to NBC, my feelings seemed to intensify.

I'm not sure what is left to say. My advice to people who are feeling this pain is to talk it through with a friend or write your feelings down. We need to process this grief. We need to process the anger. By talking and writing we take a healthy approach towards recovery. If you are having a really hard time, I invite you to send me an email. ( I have somewhat limited computer access and a time zone difference, but I promise to reply immediately upon reading your message.)

Thank you for being you. I look forward to the next time we meet face to face.

Tomorrow I am going to tell you a little about my experiences in Germany.

P.S. Thank you Alisha and Angie for your comments yesterday

2 comments:

Angie Ulseth said...

Just checking to see if my user name works...can't wait to hear about your experiences in Germany.

Amber Leaf said...

I was the person who said that, "when you become an engineer, it's as if you become a part of a family or secret society."

In one's life, they are a part of many communities. Just being in college makes you a part of a community. You have a friend, family, work, community.

What about that engineering community that we are all striving in?

I am getting really close to being done with my engineering degree and I am swamped with a ton of different emotions. Right now, it is 10 pm on a Thursday night and I am in the ag engineering "lab," which is sort of like our hang out spot. It reminds me of ICC. There are 11 people in here working on homework, projects, studying for the FE, etc. It has been like this all week. Myself, along with the other people in this room, haven't gone to bed before 1 am all week and we have all been back at school by 8 am everyday. We eat lunch together, we cuss at homework together, we fight with each other, we solder strain gages on tractor frames at midnight for a mid term project that's due the next day and then stop at the local pub for one beer to relax and chat before the bar closes, we older engineers offer advice and encouragement to the younger engineers, we get excited for the latest job offer in the department. I could go on and on, but what I am getting at is that we are like a big family. There is no doubt in my mind that the people in this department would do just about any favor I asked if I needed.

Knowing this sense of belonging, I feel that even though I don't know the students that were lost - it's like there is a hole in engineering community. It's just an "eerie" feeling.

Not that I don't feel saddened about the whole tradegy. Just because we are engineers doesn't make our life more valuable than any other life. All of the communities that the people that were involved in the tradegy are mourning right now.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all.