I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I went to school for engineering. I
didn’t even know what kind of engineering I was interested in. I figured it
was better to at least have some kind of direction, rather than spending two
years undeclared, and then having to rush to graduate on time. I ended up
choosing civil engineering, and ultimately earned an architectural degree to
go along with it. A lot of people do it the other way around, but like I
said, I hadn’t been thinking that far ahead. I started out at a firm where
the work wasn’t very exciting. We constructed a lot of facilities that were
basically carbon copies of buildings that already existed. Sure, there were
some modifications necessary for every new project, due to certain
constraints, like geography, but for the most part, I didn’t find the work
challenging or glamorous. A friend from college called me up, and said that
he was starting a business on his own. It was going to be small in every
sense of the word. We were going to build these newish things called tiny
homes. They were meant to be as small as possible while including all the
necessary amenities that a homeowner would expect to encounter in a
normal-sized house or apartment. Space was key, and understanding how to
work within the restrictions of a smaller space was paramount. I was looking
for a challenge, and I found it. I had so much fun, engineering household
objects to not be simply smaller, but more efficient. My job has proved that
humans need less space to live comfortably than some may believe, as long as
they have the right tools. I designed some of those tools. I had to continue
my education since not all of this was civil engineering, but it wasn’t too
hard, and I enjoyed every second of it.
One of my proudest accomplishments was a stackable washer/dryer that
included a sink. It took up a lot less room than you might have assumed, and
it even won me an industry award. The whole washer came out like a drawer,
it was so cool, if I do say so myself. There were a few other minor
contributions, like the actual mechanism for a bed that receded into the
floor, and other collaborative efforts. I even literally built my own house
using the skills I used for my job. I was proud of myself for that too,
obviously, but the laundry sink was my baby, at least at the time. I hadn’t
thought much about starting a family. I wasn’t against it, but every
morning, when I woke up, I thought about my workday, and didn’t realize how
much time I had let pass until a stranger called me a cat lady. I think he
was just being a jerk, because he shouldn’t have known that I was an old
maid, but something clicked in me that night, and I decided that I did want
a family. Back then, there weren’t any dating apps, or even online
matchmaking services at all. All I could do was keep going to bars, hoping
to meet someone nice. Occasionally, a friend would set me up with someone,
but it never worked out. After all that searching, and all that failure, I
discovered that my future was right under my nose. It was like a romcom when
I suddenly started to see my business partner as something more. We both
loved what we did for a living, we had a great shorthand with each other,
and the attraction had always been there. We both agreed we would have one
child, I guess to keep in line with our shared minimalist approach to life.
That didn’t quite work out. Our first two children were twins, and our third
was an accident. We loved them so much, we decided to have just one more.
The fourth and fifth were also twins, but it was long before that when we
outgrew our tiny home. We were forced to upgrade. It was worth it.
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