I was never so afraid in my life than when i was on my graduation day. I thought back then, “now what?”. I did not know what a day would be like when I am not in school. It is never the same taking a vacation when you get to relax. As our graduation day closes out, the anxiety of what the future would bring was already pounding. What if when I get to the end of my fruitful life and i would never be able to accomplish the things i foresee for my self? What if all the things i will be taking will actually draw me farther away from that goal? What if?

A lot of uncertainty. Looking back, I realized they were all because of two things:

1.  foundation for my future life was not so strong when i was young, and

2.   focus on the goal instead of the journey

I remember when i was in grade three. We had an assignment about what we wanted to be when we grow up? Such question was so easy even a toddler would be ready to answer. While going through the assignment one night, I recalled my father mentioning that I would become an engineer. Such foreign sounding word was so pleasant to my ears. I was so excited getting into bed that night because  I can’t wait for the morning to come to tell my classmates about it.

Truly, the next day, i never got tired of telling my friends and my teachers about my ambition. And the only things i related the word to were bridges and buildings. And i was able to pull through every discussion.

However, as i was moving up my elementary days, all i was pre-occupied about were gardening tools, baseball bats and a couple of dolls. I was never fascinated with fast cars or how a plane works, or be amazed with tall structures. More so my mathematical ability was crippled eversince. Yet being an engineer was foremost in my mind.

Until now I wish i was an engineer. Had I been directed to it’s fundamentals, my life’s road could have taken a different turn.

Maybe because they thought I was too young to understand such things. If the conditions were right, chances were these motivating factors could have greatly affected my knowledge of the things that i want before they were set before me. I believe so because even up to now, a scene of me playing that toy airplane given by my father when I was two years old is still so vivid in my mind. The “bolitas” (a small metal ball) enclosed inside the airplanes body and covered with clear plastic cap rotated as the wheels sped up to a mechanical thrust.

There were large industries dedicated to these needs and careful considerations were taken before they actually come out of the market. I am referring to the motivational tools like toys and books a child can have early in life. Yet in our part of the world, toys were considered as rewards for not misbehaving. Instead, those neurons which could have been established for a long term connectivity in a child’s brain were directed nowhere.

Enthusiasm is one thing, knowing the pre-requisites and taking it is another. That’s what’s nice about school. In a pre-determined number of years and having completed all the requirements, you definitely know where those efforts would be going to. Consciously or unconsciously, your actions and their results are determined by the curriculum.

In life, this is the thing that we lack about (there might be something written somewhere but would only take an obsessive-compulsive detective to piece together the clues to know where they are!) On the contrary, much publicity has been given to superficiality. That is why, everyone wants to be come a supermodel. All they see is the limelight, the fame and the money but none before my time was given any attention on the what it takes to become the next top model. (Thanks, Tyra!).

Shameful as it is, only when I was pouring sleepless nights watching National Geographic’s Megastructures on cable did I know what an engineer really does and understood what it takes to become one. (And to tell you, that was not long ago.)

These shows, entertaining and informative, yet the principles are the same:

1.   start early in life. invest in yourself.

2.   you can never be better without someone telling what’s wrong with you or what you do

3.   learn the industry

4.   build your portfolio

5.   the road is never easy

6.   and the possibilities are endless.

Though the lesson was learned way past may formative years, the implementation can always be started at anytime. That’s what’s good about life. It is never a race.