You all could probably figure (through each of your modes of keeping in touch with me outside of this blog) that I've been hurling myself through a litany of life changes, life changes that we all will go through...... They're just not typically life changes made all within the course of two months like I have done! (But hey, has this girl ever known what it means to 'slow down'??) I know it, I am horrible.
I ran a senior design project. I got a job offer out of it but accepted an entirely different job offer (Honda). That job offer caused me to have to prepare to relocate to another state. Then I had to face my final term of final exams, final presentations and tie up my 'career' at the CEAS Dean's Office at UWM within a one week period. Christmas came at the end of that week. And oh, by the way, I graduated from college somewhere in there too!
New Year's came and went, and I spent it moving out of Milwaukee entirely (which was harder and more sentimental than I realized, by the way). I swallowed my nerves, small intestines, and pancreas all at once, to step it up and close my long-term relationship. Then I hopped on a cruise ship to see the Caribbean (which I STILL have to share some stories about on here, by the way!), and left the country for 10 days to 'unplug.'
When I returned, I had two days to pack up my entire life into the back of some clunky Budget rental truck (affectionately nicknamed 'The Hulk' by Dad, ha ha) and also into every seat of my loyal, unfaltering baby Beetle. We caravanned (caravaned? Spelling, anyone?) down to Ohio and never turned back.
I've been here ever since.
Had my first day of work, my first snow day at work, my first week of work.....and as of last week, my first month of work.
I have not slowed down, and my mind is always spinning. Spinning up thoughts and stories to share here - whether comical or more poetic. Spinning, thinking about some of you back home and wondering how you are doing. Spinning, freaking out about HOW I am going to learn and take in all of the fascinating, jaw-dropping things I'm getting myself into at work. Spinning, excited that I now have time to cook, exercise, read, knit, travel around a whole new state, putt-putt in my own garage. Heck, my mind pulls me in so many different directions, that I don't even know where to get started. :( So my to-do list and hunger grows!
But the one thing that has been so cool to me, and something I've had laying around on my to-do list, is to share one of my more favorite graduation day memories with y'all. And that memory surrounds Dr. Petering (pictured here).
Background story: Dr. Petering is hands down my favorite professor coming out of my years at UWM. He is one of my Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering professors, so I had the honor of taking classes with him more than once, since he worked in the department that my degree's focus came out of.
He is, as you could conjure from the photo, a younger man; in fact, he was squeaky-brand-spanking new when I went through his Optimization Research course. It was his very first semester ever of teaching college, and I was a part of his guinea pig generation. :) He grew up in the Milwaukee area; when he was in high school he was named one of the top 25 mathematicians in the United States. He went to school and got his undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. at University of Michigan all probably before the age of 30. UWM is very lucky to have him, he comes in as pretty big potatoes for us.
And of course, he was one hell of a teacher. Sooo thorough, so eloquent with how he lectured. His examples were always straight-on and polished, and they closely tied to the homework and exams he'd administer. He really made his students WORK for their grade; his class was the one where I actually watched the kids sitting around me WANTING to work on their homework and WANTING to figure it out. I'm not sure if it was because he actually made the class interesting and applicable to real life (example: if there's ever a food famine, I can use linear optimization to figure out just how many gallons of milk and how many loaves of bread to buy, for the cheapest price and best combination, for us to not starve to death. :) ) But perhaps it was the energy and focus he put into us students, that made us want to give that right back to him.
The very next semester I had him again, for Simulation Methodologies. The class was, again, fascinating and mind-blowing, even though I cursed it for the whole four months I was in it because the workload was so grotesque. I learned how to use ProModel, a computer simulation program dealie. I learned it so well, that to this day I could open it up and navigate my way through it, even though I have not touched it since the day that class finished (thus letting the rust creep in). I worked an investigation for his class about the Milwaukee County busses....you know, those damn mules that I called my mode of transportation for 4.5 years - yuck! I studied their timetables, what order they ran, and how many minutes passed between busses stopping along the same route. Christ, I gave so much to that project that I hopped on bus routes and rode up and down them all day, for no reason other than to hold a stopwatch and monitor the headcount of folks getting on the bus and getting off.....from the start of a bus route allllll the way to the end of the bus route.
Of course, my close watch on this class allotted for me to stop into Petering's office several times to hound him, ask him questions, squeeze him to teach me more, and patiently answer all of my 'but WHY?!' questions. We had a great ebb and flow established, and I really missed not having him as a professor in my last semester at UWM.
I have a few laughable moments with him - all stemming from the likelihood of him being in school for the first 30 years of his life, thus affecting his basic social skills and ability to fit into a crowd without COMPLETELY prancing around in his glowing, flashing, "I'm a nerd" neon sign.
One could be the time I accidentally walked past his office with the door wide open and he was kneeling over his garbage can, shaving his face and giving his razor some hell. (Ha ha ha!!!) The other could be how I'd always poke my head in to ask him questions about homework right before class - which was also during lunch hour, so he'd always have this wheat bread ham sandwich overstuffed with hand-shredded lettuce, stuffed into his cheeks like that of a chipmunk. Another could be a time when Bridget and I were working with him on our Milwaukee Bus project, and he completely, innocently, let it slip that we probably were intimidating the Milwaukee Bus drivers because, "anyone would find it hard to talk to two young, very attractive girls!!" Bahahahaha! Oopsies Dr. Petering.....kind of let your opinion through the smokescreen there, Buddy.
Or the other time could be when I was staying at Joe's apartment for a night, walked up to the elevators to get up to his apartment, when behold, the elevator doors popped open and Dr. Petering was standing right there with a laundry basket full of freshly-laundered clothes. I couldn't tell what was more red in the face: him or the sweatshirt at the top of his stack! He was so flustered that a student learned where he lived!!
All that set aside though, I really appreciate him for who he is, and how real he could be with his students. Plus, he must recognize his social awkwardness....and in addition to that, must be comfortable with it.....because of what he did for me on graduation day:
I remember being on the graduation floor with Sonja and Elizabeth: we were walking from our seats on the floor, up to the stage to make that triumphant walk right back down off the stage, diploma case in hand. We were so nervous, concentrating on our steps and coaching ourselves to not trip, for the mother of HANK not to trip. Plus we were spinning our heads and smiles on pedestals, showing off our S-W-E spelling we pulled off with decorating the tops of our caps:
Suddenly, I heard someone just absolutely bellow my name. "Ashley....ASHLEY....ASHLEY!!!"I went into Defcon 5 lookout mode and cranked my head all around, trying to find the source of the squawking. My eyes scanned over the rest of the grads seated on the floor. They scanned once from right to left, then again from left to right..............and did a double take when I saw Dr. Petering, in all of his Ph.D. monkey garb, standing up, all alone, in the middle of this polished group of theoreticians.
As soon as we made eye contact he said, "YEAH....GOOD FOR YOU, GOOD FOR YOU!" And started applauding. It wasn't just clapping. It was far from the golf-clap. No no no no....it was all out heave-your-arms-out-of-your-shoulder-sockets and throw your hands together like an ape holding cymbals would throw them together. It was a genuine, congratulatory applause, a standing ovation. I was touched, and even as I smiled and waved him off that he could stop, he just applauded even harder. He didn't stop when he finally got ME to turn beet-red in the face. He didn't stop when everyone sitting next to him, behind him, in front of him, all turned on their butt-bones and looked up at him, glaring and blaming him for the resounding headache they were likely getting from his ape-applause. I don't think he stopped until I got up on stage and handed my name card to the reader.
And you know what? It was the coolest thing.
I felt so special and so recognized. In that one moment, Petering showed me how much he appreciated my work ethic and areobics to always put everything I've got, into his coursework.
I remember motioning to him with my hands the snap of a picture and then pointed to him and then to me, meaning I wanted to get a picture with him in our grad gowns after the ceremony. Of course, after the ceremony and after the colorguard walked out, so the seating was free to leave, he made a beeline for the door and I never found him again.
*Insert sigh here* Boys will be boys!
:)
Anyway - Petering if you're out there.....if you Google your name and this post pops up.....or if some current UWM student reads this and (hopefully does not) share this with you....I just wanted to thank you for your energy and making class so stimulating and fun. I think of you now, now that I'm out in the real world, and I hope you're doing okay and have moved on with your current generation of students. I'm out here to help you out and talk with your students any day!
Thanks,
Ashley
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