As a child, I always had it in my mind that I was either going into the field of robotics engineering, or I would serve in the military. I remember having that idea as a wee lad, with some other random career choices along the way.
In third grade, I was applying for FUTURA program in my school district. “The Loudoun County FUTURA program seeks to enhance and to develop the intellect of fourth and fifth grade students who have been formally identified asgenerally intellectually gifted.” Formally identified? Don’t act like you’re not impressed. So anyway, I had to submit a project as part of the application. I don’t remember what the requirements were, but I composed a profile on tanks. What third-grader does that?! It was sweet though. Right on the front, a family friend helped me to silk-screen my hand drawn picture right on the front.
In fourth grade, I thought astronaut would be cool.
In fifth grade chorus, we were doing some concert that featured a song where selected students got to voice what their career goals were. At the time, my ideal was to be a “rare animal DNA hunter”. I wanted to prance around the Amazon with tranquilizer darts subduing Earth’s fiercest beasts collecting blood samples for cloning and who knows what.
It was the year 2008 that changed it all! My previous debacle was whether or not I’d work as an engineer or serve in the military. I remember walking out of the movie theaters having just viewed Iron Man thinking – “I CAN DO BOTH!”
From then on, I knew that defense engineering was the career path for me. Not to come across as egotistical, although it does play to the part, I’ve always known I’m bound for something greater than the average. I feel like I consistently define myself by “above and beyond” experiences like going to Germany, serving a mission, and moving away to college on what appears to be a whim.
I thrive in the “important people” crowd, and love thinking about a career in something I’m as passionate about as I am in defense. My résumé is as important to me as my social security card.
I hold mostly moderate-conservative political and economical views, so the arms topic is important to me. When I was in Germany, I was in Englisch Konversation as a courtesy to the Germans trying to learn English. The class read an article on Texan college professors debating as to whether or not they should be armed in the classroom. The class had a discussion on gun control, and literally out of 30 or so students, I was the only student to side with the right to bear arms.
It’s something important to me, and I feel (especially now that I’m participating in ROTC) that it’s a key fundamental in making America so renowned.
As for what I hope to do now, I’m double majoring in mechanical engineering and German with the hopes to work for Heckler & Koch, a distinguished German firearms manufacturer. Even the SEALs use their sub-machine guns, the
HK MP5. From there, I’d like to own my own defense engineering company comparable to Lockheed Martin or Northrup Grumman, eventually broadening my horizons to all forms of technology, similar to Honeywell or Mitsubishi. I very much relate to and admire Elon Musk for owning three very different technological enterprises.
I’ll be sure to remember the little people when I’m famous.
