Born Again Scientist
Before all the trouble started in my life (and by trouble I mean my parents’ divorce and going to a school I despised), I was, and still am, a very creative person. Somewhere along the line though, I became so wrapped up in social change, being noticed, and being bothered by the societal system at large that I neglected the other side of myself - the creative side. However, I never lost that side of myself; it just lay dormant due to all the drama that was going on in my life up to that point. In fact, I speak about that side of myself in my second post where I talked about firing up the engines of ingenuity. That being said, I want to take my readers on the actual journey of how I finally got back in touch with this part of myself. As you’ll read, I didn’t necessarily get rid of the part of me that wanted social change; rather, I mitigated the part of myself that was always angry at the world and only wished to seek attention for my ideas. Therefore, let me take you on this journey and talk about those specific parts where I had a healthier mind shift from feeling like a victim to a person who became genuinely happy with what he was doing.
Closing the Gap
Earlier this year, I was perusing through a report talking about the skills gap in Los Angeles and at the bottom of the report I found some resources in my community that I could take advantage of to gain some technical skills. I dialed the number listed on the page and connected with a very helpful lady on the phone with whom I had a lengthy conversation about skills, the job market, and the new economy. I was in luck because her organization was having an open house on the next coming weekend. I took the opportunity to go and check the place out. I had the option of bringing a guest along so I took my mom and I’m glad that I did. I was fortunate to meet the lady I was talking to face to face. Next I was shown what the place had to offer by one of the instructors there.
Importance of Taking Action
In the back of my mind though I wasn’t happy. “Here I am again - back in the education phase of my life.” If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I’m deeply critical of the public education system and its lack of real world preparation so I hope you can understand why I was skeptical. In other words, the only thing going on in the back of my head was “Once I’m done with this I’d better have a worthwhile job waiting for me on the other end because I don’t want to be learning anymore; I just want to work.” Once the tour was done, I was presented with an application I had to fill out to be accepted into the program. I hate paperwork and I was thinking of filling it out at home and coming back there another day (I’m glad I didn’t). My mother and the lady there encouraged/convinced me to fill it out right there and then because there’s no point in waiting. I filled out the application and had the interview on that day. Later I found out I was accepted into the program.
Paradigm Shift
On the first day of the program, I found out the class I’m taking first is 3D printing and that sounded very awesome. The holdup for me was that I still wasn’t immersed in my new mindset and was stuck in my old mindset of just wanting people to pay attention to me and my work. So I told one of my classmates there to look up my blog and my YouTube page. I think she looked at the landing page for the blog but, didn’t have time to read any of my posts on there. Eventually though on the third day of class I had that healthy liberating mind shift that I was talking about. It turned out that my instructor was a pretty awesome guy. He went to the same University as me, had an interesting background growing up in the Midwest on a farm and then working in the air force. He had very interesting stories to tell in class and showed us some pretty interesting tools we could use on the computer to take advantage of our technical skills. Before I knew it I actually enjoyed going there and learning the things I was learning. Then around the 3rd and 4th week when we were actually using the software to create things and 3D print them that’s when my inner scientist came out.
At first we used Photoshop to make interesting designs with our names, which was cool but not exactly awesome. Later in the class we were introduced to a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program called Fusion 360. At first it was complicated to use but once I got the hang of it I couldn’t stop creating things because I was having too much fun.
Creativity Unleashed
Not only did I finish the class projects that I had to do ahead of schedule but I had plenty of my own side projects going on that I finished by using the software at home as well as in class. Even though the things I was 3D printing were made out of plastic and didn’t exactly have a practical use it was still amazing to me to see an idea that I had in my head actually get designed by me and then be brought to life by 3D printing. In other words this was the closest thing to magic that I had ever seen and I was truly impressed and excited. Then I remembered the deep affinity I had to science and technology when I was growing up in my earlier years. Since I always enjoyed aviation and the idea of flight, some of the things I 3D printed were based on aircraft designs. Then the instructor issued a challenge to create a moving part within the object being 3D printed and after a few attempts I successfully created a helicopter and a zeppelin that had moving rotors (the only thing they were missing was the actual ability to fly).
Breakthrough
Eventually, the desire to be noticed and paid attention to was no longer at the forefront of my mind. When I was at that place and using the printers I was living in the moment. The problem that I notice with most people is that they had some moment in their past that they lust for (the good old days) or some eventual moment in the future that may or may not happen (if this’ll happen I’ll finally be happy). The trick is in life to learn to enjoy the moments that you do have. That’s what was happening to me at that moment. I wasn’t thinking that when I’m done with this I’d better have that high paying job etc. I was thinking “My goodness! This technology is amazing! I can create anything I put my mind to!” (which is exactly what I did). Ironically, when my desire to be noticed was overshadowed by my desire to create, invent, engineer, and experiment that’s when I started getting noticed by my classmates and the people in charge of the program.
Keeping It Real
Then what ended up happening is that the 3D printing class ended after those 6 weeks and we began the coding class. The good news is that we still had access to the printers and could print anything that our hearts desired. I was the one who used the printers the most after the end of the class. Even with the new class I was still enjoying myself and expanding my horizons. The important thing was after those 6 weeks that this wasn’t just a place I went to to gain job skills and become more marketable but, it was a community of people who genuinely came together to help each other out and enjoy the process while they were at it. That sense of community was almost as important as the feeling I got when I was creating all those things I 3D printed. You simply can’t get that same sense of community when you’re online or even skyping. When you actually go to a physical place and you talk to people face to face it’s much different than when you’re a lone wolf online who has a YouTube channel and a blog that you’ll get lucky if someone just stumbles upon it because you mention it in a forum or on reddit (sometimes reddit even bans that behavior because they consider it self-promotion). When I’m here online someone might stumble upon my posts and give them a read same or watch my YouTube videos but when you’re with people and you’re talking about a subject or life experience you had and you’re not doing it with synchronous communication it’s a very different and much more satisfying process that some of us take for granted these days.
New Beginnings
Believe it or not though, a lot of things I said in my blog posts such as “Firing the Engines of Ingenuity” and “Execution of Solutions” relates to this Digital Learning Academy (DLA) program at the YWCA. I can tell you that my Engines of Ingenuity were firing on all cylinders in the 3D printing portion of the curriculum. It’s more efficient than the public schools because first of all it’s more democratic and community oriented. The focus is on teaching skills and practices that are more practical for the career world. The instructors there are more than teachers - they are helpers and treat the students there with respect. It’s a very hands-off approach to learning which better simulates what the world is like once a person is out of school. Even though it is a hands off approach the help is there when you do approach the instructors with specific questions. As I mentioned before, the sense of community is very genuine and you can really feel that you are a part of something bigger than yourself while at the same time you are improving yourself on an individual level. All I can say is that I am glad to be a part of it and I’m glad that it awoke my inner scientist and sparked that part of me that loves to create, build, and explore possibilities.