Directions

Some of the smartest people I know are engineers. (Don't tell them I said that because they also have the biggest egos.)

When they see something cool, they take it apart and see how it was made; to fully understand they start from the end and go to the beginning. Finally they can take those pieces and rebuild that machine in new and more innovative ways. This is called reverse engineering.

When I work with my students, I always ask them what they want to be when they grow up. Because that best informs what the student should be doing today to make the future goal a reality. When I think about where I want to be "when I grow up," I do not know what to say. There are so many things I am doing but do these things put me on the path of what I want to do in the future? I feel as though I have gotten too caught up in the present to be able to align myself to the future. My directions seem to be all over and everywhere all at the same time.

It's like this scavenger hunt but I don't know what the prize is at the end. I run from here to there, reading clues, trying to decipher where I am supposed to go next. So I spend my time running back and forth, but never really going anywhere; just spinning my wheels. I'm just a hamster in a spinning wheel that goes no where.

It's times like these when I need to step back. Stand still and determine where and what it is I want to be. Life is full of distractions pulling you in every which way there is. But often times, it doesn't pull you in the direction you actually want to go. Watch out for these detractors and consistently check if you are going in the direction YOU want to go.