Now that my homeschooling days are over (see
here), I have decided to embark on a sabbatical of sorts - hopefully taking this school year to reflect and think about what is next for me.
In my “past life” (pre full-time motherhood) I was a chemical engineer. I’m not sure if it was the best fit for my strengths, but I did enjoy all my assignments. My career started as an intern at Texas Eastman, and bless his heart, my Dad took some photos of me there and tried to make a chemical plant look good.
I ended up spending my entire chemical engineering career at Eastman - working at Arkansas Eastman in Batesville, Texas Eastman in Longview, and Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport.
Now, 30 years later, an environmental firm in Knoxville hired me as an intern! This spot was supposed to go to a college student, but they agreed to give me a try. It was fun being in a lab again and doing nerdy stuff.
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| The building looked a little better than a chemical plant |
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Jacques and Andrea (my bosses)
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I can’t talk about the actual research I was working on as I signed secrecy agreements, but it was interesting, and I learned a lot. There was a lot of biology mixed in with the chemistry which took some getting used to. I really did not like having to wear gloves all the time to keep from contaminating things! I enjoyed the people I worked with, especially a PhD South African named Jacques who was forgiving of all my mistakes and laughed at all my jokes. I thought I proved I still “had it” technically, but when my internship ended, I wasn’t offered a real job of any kind. It was a bit disappointing and made me question my abilities. But I also determined that I really didn’t want to work 40 hours a week anyway. So whatever is next for me, it won’t be this, and that’s OK.
