I was on the cusp of my teenage years when Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, was released. I didn’t learn about it until I had just turned thirteen. As a voracious reader, and also somebody who still loves dinosaurs, it was a book I knew I had to read.
So much so that I read the entire novel two times in three days.
I dreamed of becoming a Genetics Engineer like Henry Wu or a Chaos Theorist (Chaotician?) like Ian Malcolm.
In my 9th grade English class, I led a two-day debate on the ethics of genetics engineering. I also studied chaos theory and ran fractal generation programs on my 486 processor that would sometimes take 96 hours to generate.
Spoiler alert! I didn’t grow up to be a Geneticist, but I know one. I also didn’t come to master chaos theory. I instead opted to study Mechanical Engineering where I knew I would one day build incredible machines to help those with severe mobility challenges better navigate the world.
Second spoiler alert! I did graduate from university with a degree in mechanical engineering, but have never worked as a Mechanical Engineer.
Instead, I went on to work with companies that specialize in distribution. For a time, I actually sold toilet paper. Now, my day job is with a company that installs solar panels for agricultural businesses and by night I write on Medium and create cool software solutions for small businesses.
I love this phrase which I often quote to people when helping solve complex problems with elegant software solutions, “English are hard. Engineering are harder.”
There’s a certain glamour in calling yourself an engineer. Perhaps it implies a level of intelligence above the average and a capacity to solve problems that other people simply can’t.
You know what’s funny though? The best engineer I know got his degree in finance.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Here’s the thing, though. Most of the time, the dreams we dream don’t align with the life we live. Often, because of necessity, people end up where they never expected. We regularly work jobs that are not exciting to us, but they are jobs that pay the bills and help us provide food and shelter.
I worked for just over seven years for a wholesale company that sold toilet paper and cleaning supplies to small janitorial distributors. At its peak, we employed only eleven people. And you know what? I loved it! It was a great job. The culture of our little company was great. We rarely had to deal with personnel issues, and everyone there worked hard to make sure our customers were happy with their window cleaner, mops, and scrub brushes.
Glamorous? Absolutely not.
Fulfilling and fun? A lot more than you would guess.
What about my dreams?
While I was working on my degree, I married a woman that I am still so profoundly connected to twenty-three years later. We’re raising five beautiful children together who are bright and selfless in their service to others. We live a life filled with mutual faith, and we have a small group of wonderful friends.
If the opportunity exists to work in a job you don’t hate, that’s wonderful, but even if you do hate your job, with limited prospects for something different, perhaps there’s an opportunity to reframe your dreams.
Sure, work is important as a means to an end, but being the most successful Chaos Theorist in history floated away on the whispers of what’s not important a long time ago.
I didn’t grow up to be a “real engineer,” but what mattered in my life changed so dramatically, that what I dream about today is continuing to nurture my relationship with my wife, my kids, and the people closest to me.
It’s okay to hang onto dreams unless they become like the high school quarterback who could never quite move on with his life. Dreams are flexible, shaped by the choices we make and the values we discover as we grow (older). Even if our dreams don’t get fulfilled exactly how we imagined, don’t ever discount the growth and experience that come from living and aspiring.
I didn’t become the next Henry Wu, but the life I built with my family and friends is far more meaningful than I could ever have imagined.
The moral of the story? Believe in the beauty of your dreams — the unexpected ones that come from focusing on the things that matter most.