Baltimore

I’ve written up various blog posts on Women in Engineering/Science many times in the last six months and have always sat on them for a few days/weeks/months, re-read them, edited them and then deleted them instead of publishing. This post started as a novel, got cut down to a few paragraphs, and now is only one. Maybe someday I’ll actually get the courage to hit publish. Ironic since a lot of my thoughts revolved around lack of courage and confidence. But for now, we’ll just stick to my trip to Baltimore.

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of going to Baltimore for a few days. It was quite an enjoyable trip. 130 of us women (and a few men) from Deere attended the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Annual Conference along with 6000 others from around the country and even globe. It was inspiring, refreshing, motivating, and just downright fun. We spent our days in sessions inspiring us to stand in the spotlight and be influential, teaching us some tips on balancing our life, reminding us to be happy with what we have, motivating us to be good leaders, and teaching us about our inspiring foremothers in engineering. This is also largely a recruiting event so there were many activities with college girls who had loaded up 5 in a car, drove eight hours, and stayed in a single room together to attend on their own dime. I loved talking to these girls and remembering where I was 7 years ago just graduating from college and a pretty clueless to what I was going to be. But mostly we just all enjoyed each other’s company. I met so many wonderful women! Now, I’m not one to normally complain too much about working with mostly men (it's normal for me to be in an office with 3 women and 100 men), but every once in a while it’s great to just be a woman and be able to talk openly about pregnancy, pumping at work, sitting in a meeting full of men, career development, shopping and other conversations that just aren’t the same in a group of men who would rather talk about baseball, hunting, football, and mechanics.  There I go stereotyping. We went out for lunch and at night, explored the harbor, shopped, and acted like children since we were all without our children (many even younger than Ada). We went back to our hotels at nine every night as we were all giddy over some quiet, alone time. I stayed up later than normal, just lying in bed, watching TV, relaxing in silence. It was so refreshing. I returned a better person and hope to attend again in the future. 

Lunch in the Inner Harbor

This is right outside my hotel.  Come to find out, Brooks was there while I was there and I missed him.  Bummed.

Gigantic candy store.  Mitch's souvenir



Flying above the clouds never ceases to amaze me

OK, so I deleted most of my rant but I must say this and more will follow when I build up the courage (you've been warned).  When rocket scientist Yvonne Brill died this March, the NY Times celebrated her life with an article that started with this:

She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. “The world’s best mom,” her son Matthew said.

The article then proceeded to mention that she was a rocket scientist who invented a system to keep satellites in orbit, but I'm sure first and foremost she was more proud of her beef stroganoff.  Yuck.  Oh and for the record she didn't take eight years off, she worked in a more flexible, less than full time job for eight years while her kids were young, STILL in a very demanding job as a rocket scientist.

I'll stop there.  For now.  Before I get too crazy.  :)

"I always did something I was a little not ready to do.  I think that's how you grow.  When there's that moment of 'Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough.  Sometimes that's a sign that something really good is about to happen.  You're about to grow and learn a lot about yourself." - Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo