the boys' room

I have fond memories of college. Kind of like other dead relationships, I mainly remember the good parts.

Sure, I have vague memories of the stress and the homework and the exams and the lack of social life because of the above and the lack of money... But for the most part, I had a good time in college and made some good friends.

And none of those things was the real intimidating part for me. The intimidating part was probably when I walked into that first classroom and didn't see hardly any other girls.

Now, I realize that that may sound quite enticing, but I ask you girls out there to think about it for a moment. A room full of guys. A room FULL of guys, and you ask yourself, "okay, where are the girls?" And maybe you spot one. Or two. A room of 100 students and approximately 5 of them are girls, and one of those 5 is you.

In the end, it wasn't that bad. It was just that initial shock. I'm recalling those memories because I was perusing our local newspaper over the weekend and saw that Sally Ride was in town encouraging girls to enter science and engineering fields. I come across articles like this now and again and I've heard that the male to female ratio in engineering programs hasn't changed much since I was there. I'd bet that some girls may start out there, but the outnumberedness (Shush! This is just a blog, so I can use made up words if I want!) drives them to other more gender balanced majors.

And I say to those girls, "Stick it out!" with the engineering. It's really not that bad. Like I said, I made lots of good friends, many of them male types. Heck! It's where I met Magnum. And I loved my engineering jobs... until I had babies that I loved more.

I came across the photo above recently. It was taken while I was in college. That would be me with the 80's big hair and fashion. The older guy was a professor of mine recognized in the field of manufacturing. It was mainly through him that the department had received all that spanking new equipment featured in that photo. Check out that "state-of-the-art" PC. What is it? A 286??

Anyway, I remember that I just happened to be walking by, minding my own business when some trade magazine photographers and writers were there doing a story. They asked me, yes ME, to be in the photo. They wanted a TRUE aspiring engineer! They wanted one of Mr. Famous Professor's protege's in the story! I remember! I heard him suggest it as I walked by:

"Hey! Ya wanna GIRL in the picture?"
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