Being an Engineer

Last night I was stuck in lab without a bike light, so I built my own using a circuit board, some white LEDs, a whole bunch of resistors, and a rechargeable 9-V battery. I ended up with a fairly bright light, and my spirits were lifted as I biked back home. In fact, I was eager to tell my housemates of what I did. While the technical aspect of the undertaking was trivial, it was the simple fact that I was able to solve a practical problem and obtain immediate, tangible results, that elicited the thought, “This is why I’m glad to be an engineer.”