It's Me Again

Where to begin. So by now, most of you know a bit about me. I am pretty typical for an engineering major. I've always been inclined in math, physics, and other sciences. I enjoy hands on repair and try to do things myself first before ever asking for help. In junior high school, I was pretty quiet and awkward. I think a lot of that is still because I was still getting used to living in Ohio. I had lived in Arkansas until I was 8, so when I moved to Bowling Green, Ohio, I was a little shy and embarrassed about my accent. Then I slowly started meeting people and becoming more open and outgoing. Having two older siblings who were always crazy and outgoing definitely helped too. Then there was the awkward junior high phase where everybody is awkward. I loved sports at the time and buried myself into soccer and baseball.

High school came around and I would say this was finally the time I stopped worrying too much about what other people thought of me. I learned to just be myself and let other people live with that. I started to feel a little cocky. I think that is because I was constantly performing in front of rooms full of people with my band and in orchestra and always starting on our soccer team. I started to care a little more about my grades too, although I definitely could have done better. Right before junior year, on the first day of pre-season soccer conditioning, I cut past somebody with the ball and when I did, my knee collapsed. I was sure that I was being a wimp and needed to just suck it up, but my dad wouldn't let me play in the soccer tournament that weekend and I had my knee checked out instead. Unfortunately, it turned out I had torn my ACL entirely. I actually ended up doing this two more times, each a year apart. This was an incredibly humbling experience for me. I was heart broken at first. I missed my last two years of the sport I loved most. I definitely could have gone on to play at a smaller school if I hadn't been injured, but I realized during this time that music was a big passion for me and that I was much more interested in engineering than I was in playing soccer. In a sense, I am almost glad for what happened. It led me here instead of a small school where I would've played soccer. I learned that nothing in life comes easy. And I learned that I am always going to have to work hard to recover from any mistakes and to avoid making them again.

Leadership Feedback

I asked one of my coworkers to be as brutally honest as they could about my leadership, including both the good and the bad. I am really glad that they didn't hold anything back and told me everything they thought about my style. I have always been a fan of criticism, as long as it can be productive. I am used to receiving criticism, especially because of my experiences playing instruments. My mother is an amazing cellist and would offer criticism of my playing when I was younger. It used to bother me and make me angry, but then I realized that her intentions were only to help make me better.

My coworker said that they really admire my work ethic. They said they enjoy when they have a shift with me because it just means their job is easier and they don't have to pick up as much slack as with others. They commented on how they appreciate that I readily assume responsibility and that they like that I am always willing to lend a helping hand. One of the things they said is very helpful is that I make sure I understand what I am doing so that I can be as efficient as possible.

Not all of the criticism was positive, however, but it was still constructive. The biggest thing they said I could use some work on is making sure I account for how my decisions affect everybody around me. They didn't mean that I hurt others, but rather that I tend to assume my plan of action is the best one without consulting others to be sure that there isn't a better idea available. They also said that I can tend to seem like I'm not genuine when talking to my peers, which I understand.

Overall, I really appreciate the feedback I was given. Even though it may not have been exactly what I wanted to hear, I am glad that they were able to be completely honest with me and allow me an opportunity to grow.

Faith in Nuclear Power Restored

I am sure this sounds ridiculous to most of you, but it astounds me that we haven't made a bigger push for nuclear power here in the United States. There have been a few "scares" that have happened, I do understand that. However, even with the most recent "catastrophy" that took place in Japan, the workers who received the most radiation actually had less radiation in their system than you get from consuming the potassium in a few bananas. Needless to say, the media doesn't understand the numbers. I do not even fully understand the numbers, but I am willing to listen to people who have studied nuclear power for their entire lives and accept the fact that it produces the least waste (yay green!) of any current power source and is much more cost effective.

I would love to take part in reforming education about nuclear power and legislation to focus more efforts on nuclear energy. I plan on spending most of my career in the research field, and more specifically in the aerospace industry. I don't know that I would be able to pass up an opportunity to help America progress in the world and continue to be a positive role model for the rest of the world though. I would hope that I will be able to have multiple careers in my future, but I really am passionate about nuclear power. The main reason, quite honestly, is that the "green" (true colors) part of me is able to see this irrational process of producing more and more waste regularly without producing more energy.

Now I am not saying that my future is going to consist of forcing legislation regularly, but I do believe that most Americans need to be informed of the true benefits of nuclear power. I, personally, used to be opposed to nuclear power because I was scared of it. I had seen so much terribly imagery of waste and cartoons of the disasters of nuclear power. The fact of the matter is that it is very, very safe. Thousands of Americans die each year due to coal power. Whether it's from mining accidents, inhaling dust, or any other reason, coal is not safe. Neither is wind energy. Or solar. They are quite frankly extremely inefficient. Wind turbines kill millions of wild birds every year, as do solar panels. Many people fall to their deaths just installing solar panels on their homes. We could learn a lot from looking at other countries that do not have energy crisis issues like we do. There is no reason for us to not be a leader in the search for sustainable energy.

I have attached a few different websites with more information on the benefits of Nuclear Power if it tickles your fancy ;)

http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2013/10/steel-land-concrete-and-vermont-yankee.html#.Um6uLxDtet2

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2013/06/14/why-billionaire-paul-allen-backed-pro-nuclear-power-film-pandoras-promise/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html

An Ethical Dilemma

Our group was faced with a very difficult situation that I hope none of us will ever be placed in. The context is that Aaron Craft has asked you to help him cheat in a class so he can concentrate for his big game coming up. You do not want to upset him so you help him out. After the test, the professor approaches you and asks if there was any cheating going on. Since you helped him out, turning him in would mean also turning yourself in.

What we decided we would do was not based on rules-based thinking. I agree with my group, and our decision was to not tell the professor that Aaron cheated off of us. The way we see it, Aaron Craft is not the type to cheat normally. In fact I don't believe he ever would, but if he did just once, that does not make him a cheater. We do not want to ruin his future in both the academic setting and on the court and also risk the future of the OSU Men's Basketball team. We would allow this to happen just this one time because we believe that it is not a big deal and that he has much more to look forward to. Also, this would tarnish your own reputation as a student, even though you didn't want to in the first place but just gave into peer pressure.

True Colors

At first I was not expecting the Myers Briggs test to come up with any realistic results that actually matched up with me. I assumed it would just be extremely vague answers of who you are so you could take it however you want, but it actually came back fairly straightforward and accurate for me. You can tell that it matches up with the way I think, especially when considering my major. I am a fairly outgoing person and I tend to be very frank when making decisions. One of the main things the description of ENTJ says is that we "quickly see illogical and inefficient procedures and policies, develop and implement comprehensive systems to solve organizational problems" This is exactly the reason I decided that I would like to earn a living as an engineer and why I think the way that I do.

The true colors text was also oddly fitting. I didn't expect it to be very accurate, especially because there were only four possible outcomes. I was nowhere near a blue. Not even yellow. However, my main colors were green with 19 points and orange with 17 points. They're both fairly true to who I am. "For me, work is play". That's about as good as it could possibly be. I chose engineering because I want to do something where I can have fun, learn constantly, and be myself. Even while working at the RPAC, I tend to goof off (but still get my work done) and have fun with my co-workers and patrons using the facility. When we discussed the traits we all had in common in our break out sessions, we discovered we were all a bit crazy... but also that we think very logically about everything! I'm glad to know I'm not the only person that thinks that way, as my emotions rarely ever make any of my decisions at all. Taking both tests was a fun way to learn about ourselves and others.

1. Think about your gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, special abilities or disabilities, age, socioeconomic status, religion, birth order and any other influences that come to mind.  How have these factors influenced your personality and learning preferences?

I have been rather fortunate to be honest. I am a middle class, white, tall (6' 2"ish), straight, male, with no real disabilities, in a region with many opportunities. If I had been born even just 50 years ago, my life would definitely be much better than my peers, for these reasons specifically. I was fortunate to have an older brother and an older sister which allowed me to watch how they succeed and learn from their mistakes so I hopefully wouldn't repeat them (even though I typically have).



I prefer to learn from hands on experiences, and that is always the way it has been for me. I learned how the engine of a car operates - not by taking a class or by reading about it. However, I learned all of this by repairing problems in my car and in my friends cars. You could have told me how it works, and I would have retained some of the information, but until I actually worked on it, I wouldn't have a full understanding like I do now. This opportunity would have most likely not been available if I were from a poor family, as I would not have been able to afford the parts. I also probably wouldn't have had this opportunity if I were from a very wealthy family. This is only because if I were able to pay somebody else to do it all, I probably would have just done that instead. Or I would have bought a car that had no problems. This is just one example, but by being in a middle class family, I have actually had more opportunities to learn from real world experiences than probably most of my peers have.


Being raised the way I have has also made me a very outgoing person. I have nobody that I am truly afraid of so I don't have issues talking to people I don't know. I have very little shame, so when others judge me, it really doesn't bother me. I was fortunate enough to have my brother and sister show me that it really doesn't make any difference in your life what another person thinks about you, as long as you have good intentions inside.

2. Write your own personal mission statement. What is your purpose in life? What values are important to you? What do you want to be? What attributes and capabilities are important to you?

My purpose in life is to help others and to learn. Often time, those two go hand in hand. Friendship is probably my greatest value, but like anybody else, I can probably spit off a list of a thousand values that I believe in. I want to be happy. I believe that pursuing my degree of Aerospace Engineering will help me be happy, not because of the income, but because I love learning every day and problem solving. I would like to work on jet engines for a living, and I want to be a good friend to others. The biggest attribute and capability to me is a willingness to learn and curiosity. I probably wouldn't have broken as many things as I have if I weren't curious. But I also wouldn't know as much about them or be able to fix them.

There are many different people out there that I consider to be phenomenal leaders. I don't know that there is one individual I can put above the others, but on person that has been a big influence on me and leads in the way that I would like to some day is a man by the name of Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Bransen.You may not know who Richard Bransen is, but you have certainly seen his work all over the place. He is the founder of Virgin Group with more than 400 companies.
He has his hands in everything. This is why I believe Bransen is such a phenomenal leader. Whenever he sees a process being done or a company being run and he thinks it could be done better, he starts up a company that undoubtedly rises to the very top every time.
"My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them ... from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it."
This shows a man with a lot ambition and he follows through every time. He started up Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and many other highly successful companies. I hope that some day I will achieve success in ways he has and always stay ambitious and hungry for more.