My Late Blog Post

Throughout my adolescent years I lived in a household in which my mother was a feminist and businesswoman and my father was a freelance writer and "stay at home dad." Such an experience has shaped much of my opinions on society and culture. To start, I was baptized as a Roman Catholic but never went to church because my father was an agnostic and my mother, while raised Catholic, decided that the church was far too sexist for her liking. Despite not attending church my family continues to take part in holidays such as Christmas and Easter and recently I have been joining some family friends in celebrating other events like Hanukkah. Through experiences such as these I have had much enjoyment and have expanded my horizons as far as religion goes though for now I shall follow in my father's footsteps on that level. Another intriguing aspect that came from my home life which shaped my opinions on many cultural "norms" was the idea that my mother was the provider for the family on a financial level. To incorporate popular culture in this blog post I can say that I can identify with the Cohen family from the television series The O.C. In the show Mrs. Cohen works in real estate and brings home most of the money for the family though when she is home she is a wretched cook, my mother has striking similarities with Mrs. Cohen on this level. Furthermore my father, much like Mr. Cohen, often times comes across as a hippy, a father who is can relate to children and adolescents. Although he works, my father stays at home and was generally the one taking care of the children on week days and driving my siblings and me to soccer games and he cooks most of the meals in my home. This reversal of stereotypical gender roles has affected my opinions and many of my outlooks on life. For instance I am a young male whose roommates all watch Sports Center twenty four seven though I have no trouble referencing The O.C. (for those who do not know, it is a show about the lives of teens in Orange County CA and is generally considered to be a show appealing to girls) in every day life or in blog posts for class. Many of my opinions on what sort of work I plan on doing after college have been affected by this lifestyle as well. For instance, I do not particularly plan on doing anything to make a lot of money; instead I have always thought I would like to stay at home as a father. This could be because of the way my family was structured, or it could be because that just seems like a lot more fun than working all day five to six days a week, or maybe I simply have a lazy personality (this blog post is late after all) but no matter what, I know that my opinions were definitely affected by my parents professions.

Money isn't everything.

Growing up, I lived in West St. Paul. It wasn't the best part of town, but I never noticed. My parents had my brothers and I at an early age so they had to work hard for what we had. I would spend the mornings with my mom until she went to school and then rest of the day with my dad once he got home from work. Whenever my brother and I would hang out with my dad, we would bike everywhere and do things most kids never really did. An example would be walking down a cliff to find some train tracks when I was 9 years old... Looking back now, we never spent any money, but it was the most fun I had when I was young. I never had any worries and my family was always close.

Once my mom got out of school and found a nice job, we moved out to Eagan and I went to a high school named Eastview. If any of you know this school, it was considered the "snobby" school with a bunch of rich kids. I didn't believe it at first, but I soon found out why. Every house was gigantic for no reason. Some people I knew had 3 family members and 6 bedrooms in their house. Why? Living in a bad part of town made me realize that it's not worth buying expensive clothes and cars. I learned the value of a dollar at a young age. Going to high school, I would hear people complaining about how their parents didn't get them a car for their 16th birthday or how they didn't put enough money into their bank account for the weekend.. To me, it was pathetic. My parents now make a decent amount of money but I still got a job as soon as I could because I could never imagine asking my parents for money. If I could choose, I would much rather live my life again exactly how it was compared to a life with a lot of money. My relationship with my family is stronger than many people I know because that's all we had. I see some friends now and they constantly fight with their parents. My roommate is now a good friend of mine, but I look down on her so much because of how bitchy she is towards her parents. They're paying for her college and just about everything else in her life. She's never had a job, yet she thinks it's normal to tell her mom to shut up and give her money.

The point I'm getting to is I will always be the type of person to value the relationships I have with family and friends over money any day. I love my life and I love the fact that I have so many people who are proud of me and I wouldn't change that for anything. I am me today because I learned how to appreciate the non materialistic things in life just by watching my parents and what they have gone through to make their children as well as themselves happy. I couldn't thank them more for shaping me into who I am today.

Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and my Childhood

I have always known that I was going to college. For as long as I can remember both my parents have always reinforced the fact that I would go to college after going to high school. My mom had gone to college, and then specialized in her field to become a CRNA(Certified and Registered Nurse Anesthetist), while my dad had first been in the Navy and then became an HVAC(Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning). While I was growing up I looked up to my dad higher than anyone else. No matter what broke in our house he could fix it, and most of the time improved it. I have always been torn between going to college for a white collar job, like my parents wanted, or going into training for something more like a blue collar job. I have always had a love for mechanical things. I love driving cars, forklifts, boats and have always wished I could fly a plane; however I would get the same amount of enjoyment of taking those same machines apart, see how everything works and then put it back together. Just this summer one of the carburetors on our boat was cutting out at high RPM, and I told my dad that I wanted to be there when he took it apart to fix it so I could learn more about it. I think the careers and lives of both my parent sis why I ended up going into an engineering field. I don't doubt that I could have made an excellent mechanic or a number crunching accountant, however I think that I would have disappointed my parents becoming a mechanic, and I would have not enjoyed by job as an accountant. That being said, had my dad not been able to teach me so much about cars and engines I probably wouldn't have found them nearly as interesting, and wouldn't have wanted to become a mechanic at all. I would say that had my parents jobs been reversed I wouldn't have taken very much interest in machines or how they worked since I have always looked up to my dad more so than my mom. The social class that my parents brought me into assumed that I would go to college, however while I was growing up I wanted to be like my dad. My life will always reflect my parents lives, even when I am older I know that I will continue to try to learn more about engines, cars, helicopters, planes and anything else mechanical, however I also know that I will not be able to do that for a living. This almost sounds like being born into the middle class has ruined my dreams, however that is not the case at all. I have been able to use what I have learned in my major to better understand the theoretical background of the things that interest me, like how an engine extracts work, how carburetors use air speed to create a pressure drop and suck fuel into the air flowing through them. This wouldn't have been possible without either of my parents. I would also like to comment that my dad has a very small family, and my mom's family lives in Massachusetts, so I mostly looked up to my parents growing up which is why I focused on the effect that they had on me.

This is a smaller, but similar to the outboard motor we have on our boat. I have boxed in the carburetor.