There are pros and cons to being in a major full of guys like Facilities Management. On the plus side, I never feel obligated to bring homemade gourmet cupcakes to study groups. On the other side, as one of the only girls you're used as a poster child for the program, as if they’re trying to prove that, “Look! We DO have girls* in the program! We’re so diverse.**”
*3
**White, middle-class Mormon males from Utah AND California
They even took a picture of me with a serious, near-blink face posing with a set of plans and plastered it all over the engineering buildings. I feel so good knowing that my legacy at BYU will be “that one girl with squinty eyes by the History of Creativity classroom”.
But sometimes there are SERIOUS perks to being a poster girlchild, like an all-expenses paid trip to Atlanta for a weekend to attend a conference where I can network and collect sweet swag like crazy.
Me and my two fellow students Allen and Colin were easily the youngest people there by a good 20 years, but that didn’t stop us from having a blast as we met with hundreds of professionals, collected dozens of business cards, ran around the expo floor, and sat through educational seminars.
This conference was my first encounter with the “wine and dine” experience: every night different company professionals took us out to dinner or drinks to convince us to work for them. After $60 pork medallions and all the virgin pina coladas I could drink I was definitely considering it.
Special thanks to my boss John Morris for personally introducing me to all the APPA royalty and talking up my research. Everyone I met was so nice and genuinely interested in me and my projects. Facilities people are so awesome- I thank my lucky stars yet again that my Dad talked me out of being an English major.
*3
**White, middle-class Mormon males from Utah AND California
They even took a picture of me with a serious, near-blink face posing with a set of plans and plastered it all over the engineering buildings. I feel so good knowing that my legacy at BYU will be “that one girl with squinty eyes by the History of Creativity classroom”.
But sometimes there are SERIOUS perks to being a poster girlchild, like an all-expenses paid trip to Atlanta for a weekend to attend a conference where I can network and collect sweet swag like crazy.
Me and my two fellow students Allen and Colin were easily the youngest people there by a good 20 years, but that didn’t stop us from having a blast as we met with hundreds of professionals, collected dozens of business cards, ran around the expo floor, and sat through educational seminars.
This conference was my first encounter with the “wine and dine” experience: every night different company professionals took us out to dinner or drinks to convince us to work for them. After $60 pork medallions and all the virgin pina coladas I could drink I was definitely considering it.
Special thanks to my boss John Morris for personally introducing me to all the APPA royalty and talking up my research. Everyone I met was so nice and genuinely interested in me and my projects. Facilities people are so awesome- I thank my lucky stars yet again that my Dad talked me out of being an English major.
Between all the conference activities and bribing we found time to live it up in Atlanta. Did you know that Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola? Yeah, and I thought the one in Vegas was cool…
Atlanta is also home to the World’s Largest Aquarium. When I was two I forced my older brothers to listen to my favorite “Baby Baluga” song CONSTANTLY, and now I’ve finally seen the real deal.
As much as I miss my lovely hotel room with the King size bed and all the fluffy white towels my heart could desire, I would still trade air conditioning and room service for being home with Zach any day.
Clarissa, you are awesome!!! You would be a stand out in any major you chose!
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool; way to go girl!!
ReplyDeleteYou're brilliant. I'm so proud :)! And when I read that last sentence I "ahhhh"ed. Lucky Zach.
ReplyDelete