Whenever I meet a new person, there's a part of me that dreads this question. We Americans seem to have an obsession with defining ourselves by what we do--and I'm the poster child for this phenomenon. This focus on determining who someone is by how they're employed can be particularly detrimental for a perfectionist such as myself. On a good week, I'm proud to call myself an Engineer with a capital E--you know, someone who can MacGyver together a solution to a problem, someone who gets so enthralled by a challenging problem that I lose all track of time. On a bad week, I wonder why I chose my major and subsequent career path and wonder if I might be a masochist. Lucky for me, I manage to have more good weeks than bad (or at least that's how I choose to remember it).
This self-doubt is made worse by the fact that I'm a female in a male-dominated profession. Although my male co-workers may question their own ability to do a specific task or solve a particular problem, I doubt that they question whether they should have ever gone into engineering. Or, if they do, it's probably not for the same reasons that I do, primarily a lack of other women in the profession. I know of at least one other female engineer who feels the same way on occasion. I recognize that the female role models I've had over the years, both during my education and my work life, have been very influential in helping me doubt myself less. It's one of the main reasons that I find it so important and so rewarding to share my love of science and engineering with female students.
With that said, I wish that society did a better job of encouraging us to embrace our entire selves, instead of so quickly focusing in on our profession or our job. The next time that someone asks me that loaded question "What do you do?", maybe I'll answer with one of these:
"I play ultimate frisbee whenever the weather's warm and I can find a good game."
"I'm an unofficial aunt to a handful of smart, beautiful, energetic kids who love me."
"I try to capture the beauty and majesty of our world through my camera lens."
"I laugh at myself and try not to take myself too seriously."
"I try to be the best friend, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, engineer and all-around good person that I can be."
