A Trip Back

I had three dominant interests going into that critical time when I had to declare a major and set a career path: science, journalism, and music. All had brought me satisfaction--the table radio I built from a kit, articles with my byline in my high school paper, and all those nice tunes on the radio that I wished I could have composed and arranged. Somehow, science won out, first with a Physics major, then Engineering. I went on to get a master's in electrical engineering and to have a substantially rewarding and varied career, but those other interests always kept competing. Writing gnawed at me the most. One of my best classes back in school was Physics lab, where I wrote A+ experiment reports that admittedly astound me as I read them now, despite having finished them in only a day's work each on a rented typewriter. I also got A-plusses in Technical Report Writing and, for my master's, I eschewed the much more direct comprehensive exam in favor of a long thesis on computer-aided circuit design. (That's "long" both in sheer numbers of pages and in years to write them.) Even at work, my best assignments were those that allowed me to write theory-of-operation papers, maintenance manuals, criteria, and specifications. I was particularly fortunate to spend the last 8 years of my career in a research environment, where I could edit scientific papers and grow further in transportation knowledge. As for that other interest, music, it was always on my mind as well, though it didn't mix as well with science and engineering. Nonetheless, I gave it some due by taking evening music classes, singing in a church choir, practicing piano at home, and dabbling in computer-generated music. Retirement has changed the mix a little but not the interests. With the day job gone, I am enjoying helping student writers and editing books and dissertations, and the inclusion of technical content only makes it better. The music is still a work in progress, but I'm still hoping to bring it to a decent level.