Monday Morning Freak-Out

I spent the morning in meetings with my dad.  He has me sit-in on some meetings to observe and learn how to deal with clients, public works staff, etc.  Well, after watching my dad answer question after question from the top of his head, I was suddenly taken over with a feeling of complete and total stupidity.

I know nothing.

Then the fear kicks in...  If something happened to my dad or when he goes on vacation, I am the only engineer at the office.  I am expected to fill his shoes.

Yeah right.  How am I supposed to do that?  Clearly I am an idiot who will never be able to know as much as he does.

Then I started giving myself a break.  He does have like 40 years of experience on me.  It will probably take me a while to learn even a fraction of what he knows.  And I was able to contribute to the meeting in a way my dad hadn't thought of.  So that was good.  Made me feel like I had value.

This also helped calm my Monday morning freak-out:

{My Harry Potter mug that changes when you put a hot liquid in it}

And while I know this is one of the nerdiest mugs ever created... it also is a little comforting to know that I am so excited about.  Because there are no cool engineers (even if some think they are).  All engineers are dorks/nerds.  That's why we are so good at math.  If we were cool, that would mean we were good with people (which we are not).  And if we were good with people we would be working in Human Resources or be a politician or a teacher or something like that.

So while I may feel stupid at work, at least I know I am nerd enough for the job.