Luck and Opportunity....

A good friend of mine told me once that there's a big difference between luck and opportunity.  Luck is when you jump out of the campus bar and manage to just catch the last bus home.  You really can't get anywhere on just being lucky.
You have to find opportunity.  Opportunity is about being open to new ideas and willing to leap and take a chance.....hopefully not in front of that bus that you're just about to miss.

Either way, I think I owe a lot to where I am to opportunity, as opposed to luck like I thought.

Here's where the story begins:
Today and tomorrow I'm stuck in a Professional Practice Exam Seminar.....all fucking day.  Today we discussed law.
Moral of the story: You're an Engineer, you engineer stuff.  You're not a lawyer, you don't lawyer stuff.  Don't try, get a good lawyer to do that for you.
Tomorrow is ethics.
Moral of tomorrow's story: Don't fuck up.  Ever. 

I'm mostly just wanting to get through the bloody thing, because it's taking away my precious study time.  I stood in line, said my hellos to the APEGS staff and stood behind a little balding portly guy that I was totally not expecting to see today.  I was standing behind my favorite Prof.  You know those electives you take, not because you have to, but because of the wonderful little portly man standing at the front of the room.  Second and third year mechanics were the classes (which I ended up loving) and Dr. D. was the Prof....whom I still look up to like no one's business.

Turns out he took the exam in Manitoba years ago, but never got his P. Eng.  Then life happened, and he got to teaching and he figured that it's about bloody time that he should get his designation.  The hilight of today, I got to sit beside my favorite Prof.....all day long.  He's no longer "my Prof"...he's "my colleague"....I love being able to call such incredible people my colleagues.  He's also potentially on my Thesis Advisory Committee.....WTF!  Holy Awesome Sauce Batman!

I didn't outright ask him, he kind of brought it up in conversation.  I mentioned the other day about who I was working with.  He remembered and asked how I enjoyed it so far.  Well, you know how much I rave about how awesome my supervisor is and how much I love my project.  Dr. D. feels the same way...about my supervisor being awesome, not so much about how he loves my project....that'd be weird  He said, "Yeah, he's a real superstar.  You're into something really amazing you know..."

Superstar count: Supervisor - 2, Dena - 2 (by association).....and they're both from professors I really look up to, but coming from Dr. D., it means a lot. 

How the Committee was brought up was a little weird, but Dr. D. said, "Yeah, he was asking me a couple of weeks ago how busy I was and if I wanted to sit on a new student's Committee.  I told him it depended on the student, but likely yes.  Now that I know it's you, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find the time."  Best. Compliment. Ever.  Having Dr. D. on my Committee is as close as I'm going to get to having him as an adviser, simply because he's not accepting too many grad students anymore.....and you know what, I'll take it!  Boy, will I take it!

Right out of school I would've liked to do grad studies under Dr. D., but it didn't work out.  I think that was for a reason.  This is better ;)

For an analogy, it's like an aspiring chef working under Gordon Ramsay....by "fluke".  Yeah, epic!

I guess I owe a lot of this to opportunity.  I had a chance to work under a pretty chill guy on something that I truly enjoy.  I took it.  When I made the decision, I regretted it like no one's business...mostly because of the pay cut and the enormous amount of debt that I'm slowly sinking into.  I was my own guinea pig.

I don't feel that way anymore.  I think this is something bigger.  I thought I belonged where I am right now.  I don't think that anymore, I know.....I'm exactly where I need to be.