Skip to main content

Motivation.

The Gravy-Copter!!!!
It may surprise some of you to know that even though I work with the Army, I am not a shoot-em-up kind of girl. I have shot one gun (a rifle) 5 times (at Diabetes camp of all places), and the BF doesn't even believe me about that. I'm not violent, I didn't have any clue how many presidents were members of the NRA (until Dave informed me), and if the Democrats would support space, I would probably lean more "that" way. So, after saying all that, some people find it strange that I work on the "arsenal", hang out with Army dudes all day, and climb in helicopters that have extra large guns and a hefty supply of missiles.  But its not violence that motivates me to do my job...it's people, and those people pilot or fly-on the helicopters I help test.

In fact I remind myself on a daily basis that the data I process, the graphs I plot, the reports I write are only stressful for me today, within these weeks, for the next year or two. But the test organization I am a part of saves peoples' lives everyday, and the programs I support may impact a warfighter years from now. It's so easy to get bogged down with the numbers, and the grammar, and the processes, it's enough to give you a good stress-out fest (i.e. last week). But its so important to remember how your piece fits in, why your job is important, why people count on you to get the numbers and the grammar and the processes right. Their lives depend on it. Their lives depend on you.

I know the specifics of this post may not make sense to a lot of my readers, but surely the idea of finding your place in this world, of motivating yourself to contribute beyond what you can see from your "foxhole", of finding and remembering your purpose and giving your all each day.....this idea is no doubt universal. Because someone depends on you, even if you don't realize it.
Labels:

Comments

  1. JeffThursday, February 24, 2011

    I had this same thought a couple years into my career, when I was doing tech support for MATLAB and dealing with a real PITA customer. "If I don't do this right, somebody's bridge is going to fall down." And it's stuck with me since I switched to product development, because I don't want to be even tangentially responsible for a medical misdiagnoses or for somebody blowing up the wrong building.

    Unfortunately, that first time was also when I realized that sometimes doctors themselves just phone it in. I'm sure some of them are doing the medical equivalent of the old tech support "You need to reinstall" trick.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Who has two thumbs and loves comments? Nerdy April!!! Type one out and hit publish!

Popular posts from this blog

The road to curing Type 1 Diabetes

From the moment of diagnosis, the road is rough, the learning curve is steep and the stakes are literally life or death. The map is less-than-helpful - paths originating from virtually every corner, coalescing at a center point (aka "diagnosis") and bursting back outwards - some paths cross and wrap around each other but others are isolated. And even with all of these roads, most of the territory is uncharted - how did we all get here and how will we all exit? Where are the obstacles we haven't found yet? Which passage holds the key to unlocking the solution?

On any given day I feel pretty isolated with this disease - I'm the only T1D in my group at work, the only one in mission control, the only one in my family. I go through the logistics of calling insurance companies, ordering supplies, changing sites and troubleshooting malfunctions mostly on my own. Even those pesky carbs really only get counted in my brain, no group think for a meal bolus here. But there is b…
2 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »

Type 1 Diabetes - IT life.

Nine years ago (9 years ago?!), I was still waiting for the black-box-doctors at the FAA to clear my Class III medical certificate - a requirement for my then-job flying on experimental Army helicopters. To 'pump' up my diabetes-dejected ego (ha), Dave let me tag along with him for his MH-47G proficiency simulator runs. That tiny taste into helicopter flight dynamics gave me so much appreciation for him - hovering is literally the.hardest.thing, I was tense the entire time and constantly felt like I was one small cyclic movement away from losing control. Even though I knew in the back of my mind we were in a (moving) simulator, my senses got lost in the weight of the flight controls, the movement on the screens, and the hard thumps when I hovered right into the ground.

At the end of the runs I asked him how he has the stamina to pilot this monster of a helicopter for literally 15 hours straight (these special ops versions can mid-air refuel). He sort of laughed, but his answer…
2 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »

International Travel with Type 1 Diabetes

Whew! Back from one international trip and on to another next week! I will admit my eyes roll every time I get the "we're gunna need to pat you down" talk at TSA, but international travel is a whole different animal. I thought it might be fun to see what goes through my brain and into my bags for these types of trips!


I wouldn't be a NASA Flight Controller if I wasn't good at planning, the key to international travel as a T1D is PLANNING!

3 months prior

Assess supplies. Mine come in 90-days supplies so I like to inventory at least 3 months prior and make a plan to order more early if the trip is going to coincide with the end of my 90-day stock. In my experience supply companies are usually pretty good about adjusting orders as needed if you tell them the reason for the early request - just mention you have an international trip coming up and want to make sure to have plenty of supplies (and backups!) in time. Request a loaner insulin pump. It's likely the comp…
2 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »
01 09 10