Beginnings

Walking to campus today felt so good.  There was an excitement in the air that exudes from excited young people.  There were plenty of young people and being part of their world made me smile all day long!  I guess everybody felt the same way, because I didn't see anyone who wasn't smiling.  Freshmen were excited about their new life and their new-found freedom; seniors were excited about finishing things and everyone else was just excited because it is fall semester at Auburn.  At dinner tonight, a table of three young women was next to me.  They talked and giggled and enjoyed each other so much that I wanted to peek through the curtain separating us and tell them I remembered being 20 and giggling with my girlfriends.

I had my first Systems Engineering class today and it was great!  The class is taught by the chairs of the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE)  and Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE)  departments and a well-respected  CSSE professor.  It'll be a lot of hard work, but worth it since I think I've found my next career step.  Systems engineers know a little about a lot of things and use that knowledge to solve problems by understanding the big picture and pulling a variety of people together to design and implement successful solutions.  The government is funding (read: scrutinizing) this class because they don't think there are enough systems engineers and want reputable universities to develop them.  One of the people involved in making the class happen is getting her Industrial and Systems Engineering PhD through government funding and I need to take her to lunch to learn more about the feasibility of my working in this area.

Tomorrow is my first class in Distribution Center (warehouse) design and management.  It should be an interesting class too.  The professor expects a lot of his students and is, by reputation, a great teacher.  The course fulfills one of my requirements, but I'm looking forward to learning from and getting to know the teacher.  I love having time to read both the required and supplemental material--oh to always be at the beginning!