My visit to Purdue

On Monday, I was able to go back to Purdue to speak on behalf of the Women in Engineering Program.  Every semester they have a program called "Juniors Exploring Engineering at Purdue" where high-school juniors and their families spend the day on campus.  I had the opportunity to speak as an alumni at a panel event with 3 other former female Purdue engineering students.  I've done this in the past, but haven't since I went on steroids the first time.  I guess I was a bit self-conscious, but this time I figured "what the heck".  And I'm so glad I did!  I had a really great time doing it this year!  There were at least 100 people in the room, which normally would've made me nervous, but not so much this time.  Granted, I did get the tomato-red face and neck (those of you that know me know EXACTLY what I'm referring to :), but it wasn't because I was nervous.  Guess it just happens to me regardless now.  Anyway...I don't know if it's because I've "grown up" since the last time, but I felt really confident this time and it felt GOOD!  It's such an exciting time for these girls, and their parents (God bless them) are totally FREAKING out!!!  They're all worried about whether their girls should do a co-op or intern, or take AP courses, or have an A in physics...HAAHAAHAA..Sometimes I wish I could sit up there and tell stories about the times I spent rolling down Slayter Hill....drunk (probably not the BEST place to do this :).  I just try to get them to relax a bit..and let them know the following:
1.  Yes, college is hard
2.  There are people smarter than you.
3.  Friends are important
4.  So are study groups
5.  You've got a great shot at a great job out of college with an engineering degree from Purdue
6.  These are truly some of the best years of your life
7.  HAVE FUN!

Hopefully the message was conveyed.  I think it was, because as I was in the elevator at the parking garage across the street, I had a mom tell me that she really enjoyed my talk (and she seemed to be referring to me) so I thought that was fantastic (KUDOS TO ME!!!!)..Ok, enough tootin' my own horn :)

This time, my friend Missie went with us (me and Izzy, that is).  She didn't go to Purdue, but her husband Brad did, and she watched Izzy while I was yammering away.

So when I walked into the room in Stewart center, I got this MMS from Missie:

and I completely cracked up..how could you not?  And I got a few more while I was there...

Hopefully Izzy had so much fun that she'll want to go to Purdue too!  I'm guessing I'm going to have to work on this one.  It's too bad that Joacim has no idea what that experience was like.  I wish we both had crazy stories to tell her of that time, but I'm guessing he's got some crazy stories of his own that he won't want to share with her :)

And after we had wrapped up everything at Purdue, we headed to Sonic for lunch.  It was a tough choice...Dog 'n Suds or Sonic, but Sonic won out on this one (it's all because of the tater tots, I swear).

I swear people are going to think I only feed this kid corn dogs...but here's ANOTHER video of her eating one in the car...seems to be a theme...drive-in restaurant, corn dog...movie of Izzy eating said corn dog...


And after the corn dog was finished (ok, MOSTLY finished), we headed over to my Grandma's for a short little visit.  She doesn't get to see Izzy much, so we thought it would be a fun surprise for her and it was!  Here she is with Grandma and Marvin :)

Such a great day!