I first set foot on-site at Johnson Space Center in August 1997. I did five cooperative education tours as an undergraduate and another as a grad co-op over the summer of 2001 between graduating from Georgia Tech and starting at Stanford. The way the government calculates “time worked” is a bit complicated, but when all was said and done, my “effective” start date as a civil servant became August 1998. After finishing at Stanford, I moved to Houston permanently and started full-time at JSC in July 2002. So that’s 11 years since I first pledged my allegiance to the government (yep, you have to do that), 6.5 years since I started working full-time, and many semesters as a student thrown in.
If you can even remotely follow all that, you are now ready to hear my point: this afternoon I walked over to building 1, sat down with a group of others for a short ceremony, and was given my 10-year government service award. It’s not much — just a tiny pin, a handshake, and a photo with the head of Mission Operations — but still. Whoa. 10 years.
Left is the 5-year pin, right is 10-year. 5 more years and I’ll get a gold one! Heh.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my future. I’m no longer early career, but not quite mid-career. It’s time to start thinking more long-term and give myself more direction than I’ve had in the past. What do I really want to do? Do I want to stay in flight control (which will be going through quite a lull soon, as the shuttle stops flying)? Do I want to try to move elsewhere within mission operations, or within JSC, or within NASA elsewhere? Then there are the harder questions: do I want to stay at NASA at all? Do I want to even stay in the aerospace field?
So I’ve got a lot of thinking to do. But I’m happy to report that today, just before I got my 10-year award, I found what should obviously be my next job for the short-term: Wienermobile Driver.
Wienermobile spotted in Galveston almost 4 years ago after the Mardi Gras 5K
Yes, Oscar Meyer is taking applications to be a hotdogger, aka to travel the country in a giant vehicle shaped like a wiener.
AWESOME.
Katie says
HAHAHAHA the wienermobile cracks me up, but it would be so cool to drive it so come visit when you get that job. My job gives really lame service awards – glass paperweights. Even if you’ve been there for like 30 years. Your pins are cool!
txrunnergirl says
LOL, I love the Weinermobile! Some days I want to just sack groceries at Randall’s or have some other think-less job.
Steeeve says
“It’s great to be with a wiener” – Luis Tiant
Sorry, probably none of your readers will get that reference (you needed to live in the northeast in the late 70’s) but I had to throw it in.
baucs says
Hate to break it to you, Sarah, but I think we are too old to drive the Weinermobile! A good friend of mine drove it for a year after college — said it was one of the best experiences of his life — but I seem to remember him mentioning an age limit. Oh, well.
Cassie says
Congrats on 10 years of Federal Service!