10 Years

Becca & me at GT graduation on May 5, 2001

Today is the 10th anniversary of my graduation from Georgia Tech. It blows my mind just a little to realize an entire decade has passed, because it often feels like yesterday.

Brian, Mom, me, Katie, and Dad. So young!

I was absolutely terrified to graduate. I remember spending my final semester in Atlanta in a haze of classes, late nights in the Technique office, and time with friends. I was overly emotional about everything. I was incredibly sleep-deprived. But I also remember having a LOT of fun. I didn’t want anything to change.

With Carter and Kent. We all went out to lunch with our families after graduation.
(I coincidentally found that dress while cleaning out my closet last weekend.
It still fits, but it’s going to Goodwill.)

I spent a lot of time that spring debating whether aerospace engineering was right for me. I thought about graphic design, editing and layout. I still think about those things a lot, although I don’t regret my time at NASA and plan to be here for at least a few more years. I still don’t know if I’m a NASA lifer, but it’s working well for now. (For the record, I do not recommend second-guessing your choice of major when you are only a few weeks from graduating. Especially if you are, as previously mentioned, already sleep-deprived and overly emotional.)

Adam, Karen, Becca, me and Kent — five graduating Aerospace Engineering seniors.
We “broke” into the study lounge and left this futon and a bunch of yellow spray-painted textbooks.

But graduation happened anyway, of course. I spent the month after graduation backpacking around Europe — my first trip abroad. I spent that summer co-oping here at NASA then moved to California for a short 9 months of grad school. I almost stayed at Tech for grad school, but some part of me knew I needed to get away. I knew then and still know now that was the right decision, but grad school is a totally different experience than undergrad, and my time there was short. While I loved Stanford and northern California, I never had the emotional connection to Stanford that I did (and still do, to an extent) to Georgia Tech.

This picture of Kent, Chrissy, James and Carter made me laugh out loud. We played a lot of Risk that spring.

By July of 2002, I had moved to Houston and started full-time at JSC. In the years since, I’ve made several other decisions that were hard to make, but turned out to be right in the end.  When I left Stanford, I just wanted a break and thought I’d be headed back to school after a year or two to work on a Ph.D. (Nope.) I applied for an aerospace job in Seattle a few years later and was ready to move there, but I didn’t get the offer. (A good thing, in retrospect.) Jose and I almost moved to D.C. in early 2009 before changing our minds at the last minute. (I still wonder about this one sometimes. But overall: good decision.)

Random softball game group shot. I think it was Technique staff vs SGA or some such nonsense.

But I’ve now been here in Houston for almost 9 years. NINE YEARS. It boggles the mind. I’ve had three different jobs, all of them at JSC. I’ve made new friends and lost touch with old friends. I’ve traveled a lot. I met and married Jose. (Best decision ever.)

For spring break in 2001, we went to LA. One day we drove to San Diego to see my co-op friends
Cari and Katie. They both still work at JSC and I see them often. They’ll get a kick out of this photo.

Fortunately, I still keep in touch with the handful of friends I was closest to at Tech. Heck, I still see Becca on a weekly basis since we both took jobs at JSC — in the same division, no less. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter all help with that. Hooray for the internet!

Becca, Jen, Karen and me — the “AE Female Mafia” at Senior Dinner with one of our favorite professors.

I finished a chick lit book last weekend in which the main characters were four best friends who were four years out of college. The book oozed with their nostalgia for days gone by and I must admit that if you’d caught me at 27, I might still have felt the same way. But not anymore. College was fun. Georgia Tech was the place for me and I loved my time there. But I love my life now too.

Thumbs up to the end of my first decade as an “adult.” Here’s to many more.