You Can't Eat Pm

Hey, I DID include a nice in there with that.

But, yes, I KNEW I wanted to be a chemist when I was 9 years old. Later in life, it always surprised me that my folks never complained about some of my "rogue" experiments that stunk up the house or blew the windows out of the room where my lab was located; a minor error on my part with too much oxidant in an over-dried batch of rocket fuel at age 12.

Fortunately, I never got to embrace my love of the A-bomb by actually building one. I did do a pipe design of one on paper, though. My Mom attributed all this to my being born on August 6th.

Ah, the good old days. I loved my ChemCraft set from Sears!



That's the whole trick with experience... surviving our mistakes!



OK, so I won't say "Was"?

i think the big deal of the current nickel is that it is 75% copper/25% nickel and is worth more then 5 cents in metal.Which means they will probly change the metal that its made with soon.
But now you dont have too sort threw them as you will when they change it.

Our difference in age could go a long way in explain our differing experience. with guidance councilors

I started college in 1996. I had always done well in school so was heavily pushed to a college prep track and discourage from taking machine shop and building trade classes. (That was back when our school had trade classes.) My first choice in career paths was the merchant marine. That was quickly shot down by the guidance councilor as a "waste of my talents" Next was to become an auto mechanic. I was told if I was interest in being a mechanic I should become an engineer. Why fix cars and get dirty when I could design cars.

I ended up getting a mechanical engineering degree and have worked mostly in the aerospace, agriculture, and auto industries for the past 12 years. It has been a good way to make a living but I've always been happier getting my hands dirty building something than completing all the BS paperwork / supervising required of an engineer.

My wife just gave birth to our firstborn son... much too early to start this kind of talk but I'm already whispering "don't be stupid like your dad, do something you love and with your own two hands!"

As a young man I had an opportunity to take a good paying job and skip college. That is when my grandfather sat me down. He told me that education is important and is one of the few things that no one can take away from you after your earn it.

He said get the education and if I still want to take the other job it would be there after I was done with my education.

He was right.

I believe few people love what ever vocation they end up in. Sometimes I don't think you are suppose to like it.

I based my final job on a few keys choices. The first was family time - I wanted to see my kids grow up, play sports have family vacations.

The result is that I make far less then most of my friends. However I have the greatest amount of free time and have achieved my goals. My youngest is starting her varsity sports years and it has been enjoyable. They are four short years and they go fast.

We never complain about money - if we need something we find a way to get it done.

Did I ever do what I wanted to do out of high school? No I didn't but then the mining industry is no longer king.

I would agree with that. It really IS a different world out there. All any of us can do is relate what our experiences have been, even if they are no longer current.



And I graduated from college in 1970.



As in any other profession, there are some really good people doing guidance counseling and some that are not so good. My GC sat me down, got comfy, and said, "What would you like to do?". We went from there. It probably helped that I already wanted to go in the direction that they would likely have suggested but it was good that we started that session with questions about what I wanted and not a lot of statements about what would be good for me.

As to your becoming an engineer, that probably did work out quite well for you. It's great work and it pays well. As a scientist, I worked with many an engineer. The ones that were involved in R&D seemed to enjoy their work the most. There were a lot of times when they had to build research apparatus from scratch because there was no commercial model available for running the tests that I had developed.



Sure, but is there anything stopping you from doing that too, either as a part-time job, full time when you leave the engineering business, or on the side as an auto shop owner or part owner? You have the skills. All you need is to find the time to use them as you wish.

I could not agree more with you about paperwork and other supervisory duties. I had a wonderful job as a bench chemist. I did a lot of good things for the company where I worked, thoroughly enjoyed it, and was well paid for it. Once we got bought out by a big corporation, things began to change. My lab time became less and less while my meeting, phone, paperwork, and travel time become more and more. I finally "hit the wall", as they say, and could not do it any more.

That was the point when I realized that retirement was the only answer. Fortunately, I had been planning, saving, and investing for that for 23 years by that time. The bull market of the 1980s and 1990s allowed me to retire quite comfortably, which I did in 2004. That was the best decision I ever made.

Even though we are removed from each other's experiences by a couple of decades, this is similar to what I experienced as well.



Same here. My final boss was a great guy who I very much admired and respected. I had zero interest in his job, though.



Yes, that is really a great experience. I read some magazine articles about the young US soldiers and Marines who went to Somalia several years back. They had a lot of preconceptions about meeting people in Africa. They soon discovered that our black soldiers and Marines had MUCH more in common with their Caucasian teammates than they did with any of the Africans. It was just a totally different mind-set that would not have occurred to them without that travel experience.



Yes, I understand that perfectly. I have worked MANY a 60-80 hour work week, especially when traveling. A schedule like that does not leave much time for anything but that which is needed for work.



Now this is a genuine nugget of wisdom. I also arrived at this at a certain point. It took a while because my job was VERY satisfying for about 25 years. The last 6 years were not.



A sabbatical can be just the thing at certain points in a person's life. Before the economy dropped into the crapper, there were a number of companies who not only allowed their employees to take 6-12 months off to do things other than work but who actively encouraged them to do so. I suppose that this is no longer in vogue because of the drive towards ever leaner and meaner companies.
That's a shame too. I hope that this returns at some point.