I ended up becoming an engineer later in life. By later, I mean around 30, after getting a different degree and working at a couple different careers before going back to school for engineering. My mother used to say that she suggested engineering as a career for me when I was in high school. I don’t remember that.

What I do remember is that one time, I was on the bus going to a basketball game – I played throughout high school, it was a small school.  I took along a slide rule and the directions and was learning how the slide rule worked. I am not so old that slide rules were the norm in high school, and in fact very few people even then knew what they were for, let alone how to use them. So, I was teaching myself how to use the slide rule and that night, I did great on the court. I played extremely well. It was like my engineering self was alive, making shots off the backboard at the proper angle and calculating my way easily to a double digit point game.

I should have known then that I should go into engineering. The slide rule was pointing the way.