Dimensionless Analysis and Black Widow Spiders: a post about my job

Disclaimer: I'm obviously hesitant to blog about work, so I'll keep this really generic and only say the positive things. Sorry! But I don't want to get dooced.

I know it's only my fourth day, but this job has already taught me that yes, mechanical engineering IS for me. I find it incredibly gratifying that every day we talk about something that I recently learned. All that studying wasn't useless after all! Those weird theorems have a purpose! The labs we did weren't unrealistic! It feels great to be like "dimensionless analysis? Why yes, I do know all about that."

Also great is that everybody just assumes I'm smart. There's no babying, like, "now, because the volume is controlled, when we heat this up, there will be a build up of pressure. See? PV=nRT! Do you understand?" instead we cut right to the chase and I'm learning stuff that is both awesome and applicable. Most things I'm learning have to do with explosions. I've watched tonnes of clips of things blowing up. It's pretty cool.

Also cool is that I get to go out to our test site. While I can't tell you about the test (but hint: things explode), I can tell you about all the safety we went through. Yes yes, steel toed boots, safety glasses, all that. (Ps, you should see my uniform. I'd post a picture but you would die laughing) But also all sorts of animal awareness safety. For example, there are 4 types of poisonous snakes in North America. Texas is home to all 4, and 3 are native habitants of the area where we test. INCLUDING RATTLESNAKES, GENTLE READERS. I hope to see one. From a distance. Also: black widow spiders, scorpions, armadillos, and chiggers. Look chiggers up. Yikes-a-likes!

Also yikes-a-likes, I'm probably going to be taught how to shoot a gun. I've never so much as touched a gun. I feel so Texan already. I'm going to buy myself some cowboy boots, and I will hardly feel like a poser.