5 Things Engineering School Taught Me About Life
I graduated in 2012 with a degree in Civil Engineering. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Literal blood, sweat, and tears went into that four-year degree, but I came out on the other side better for it with life lessons I didn’t even realize I was taught.
Now that enough time (and then some) has passed, I can look back and reflect on all the life lessons that were taught hidden within the endless hours of math and physics.
1. Everything Has A Solution
There is a solution to every problem you will face in your life. You may not like the solution, you may even prefer the problem to the solution, but the solution exists nonetheless.
Realizing this fact does a lot for us. It places the control of our lives back in our hands. I am not discounting that some problems are much bigger than others and the toll they take on us can be very debilitation and detrimental. All I am saying is that a solution exists; everywhere you look you can find inspiration from those who found solutions to some seemingly insurmountable problems.
This leads me to the next life lesson…
2. The Obstacle Is The Way
I know, I know, this is very cliché and we have heard it said many times before, but this is something that we should all come to live and breathe.
In engineering school, you are given assignments where you not only need to find a solution but also need to find the most efficient solution. I cannot begin to tell you how much precious time was wasted trying to avoid the problem and somehow circumnavigate it when the answer was embedded inside the problem itself. I’d often lose sight of the problem trying to find a clever solution.
Life is the same way, we are presented with problems that we try to avoid by ignoring them, hoping they will go away on their own. Some problems, however, require us to look them straight in the eye and tackle head-on. Oftentimes, the problem itself gives us a place to start and a clear goal of what we need to accomplish. The rest is elbow grease.
3. You Can Give It Your All And Still Fail
It is possible to do everything correctly and put your soul in it and still fail. That is just life. You can believe you are the perfect candidate for a position and give an amazing interview and still not get the job. You can study for weeks and have all the core principles ingrained in your brain and still fail the test.
From time to time, you will be reminded that life is simply not fair. You might in every right “deserve” something and still not get it. Don’t take it personally, and most importantly don’t let it stop you from trying again.
4. Survive To Fight Another Day
There are classes you ace and there are classes you struggle with every step of the way for a barely passing grade. But passing is passing and you have to accept that not every fight will be won in the most inspiring way.
I’m not trying to promote just barely getting by as a habit. We should always strive to do our best, but just like there are some classes in engineering school that I know I will never need again (I’m looking at you multivariable calculus), there are some parts of our life that we do not need to put in all our time and energy.
Life exists in seasons and some seasons, we do what we can to get by, knowing that tomorrow is another day. We have all experienced days where the simplest of tasks take all our energy and nothing goes right. It’s important to recognize when to throw in the towel, albeit temporarily, take the rest we need and start again another day. Do not let your ego/societal pressures tell you that you are a failure or you have failed. What you have done is recognize that at this moment you are not going to accomplish what you want in its best form and for that reason, a temporary break is best. What is most important is that you try again another day.
5. What Real Commitment Looks Like
Many of us go into tasks, projects, relationships, etc. with the best of intentions. We lead ourselves to believe that we are committed to a person or job or project and then everything starts to go wrong and we realize that we were not committed.
I’m sure that this has happened to all of us. We start something and when things don’t go as planned, we are smacked in the face with the harsh realization. We did not have it in us to get through the obstacle because we were never really committed. We told ourselves we were, but hard times reveal truths.
School taught me what real commitment from myself looks like. What taking a beating and continuing with my goals unwavering looks like. This get’s romanticized a lot, but the reality is that an authentically committed path can be lonely, heartbreaking, and oh so exhausting. Pushing through these moments which sometimes last a while, knowing that more of these times will follow is what separates those of us that really want it versus those that just think they do.
You don’t need to go to engineering, medical, law, etc. school to be taught these life lessons. Some of us have learned them along the way while living our everyday lives. I’d even say that all of us have been taught these lessons one way or another. We should all take a bit of time and reflect on what our unique lives have taught us.
