Emotional Engineering

Abstract

I want to talk about emotions. Well, I don’t really want to. Frankly, not having to deal with emotions was one of the attributes of engineering that attracted me to this field of study.  I liked keeping interactions on an intellectual level. Answers to Math and Physics homework sets were cut and dried and the odd numbered ones could be found in the back of the book. There was security in knowing the right answer. However, despite the promise of clarity, even as an engineer, I found questions finding their way in, or their way out, questions that were rooted in my emotional landscape. Is this all there is? What do I want my life to be about? How am I making the world a better place by the work that I do? These weren’t academic questions for me; they were soul searching questions that challenged the core of my identity. Could I be an engineer and be whole, whatever that might mean? I’m proud of the work I have done to become an engineer, but there is something missing.