Learning Something New

They say you should never stop learning. That has certainly been true in my life. There always seems to be something new to learn. This week I learned something I never in a million years thought I’d know.

When I was a child, I wanted to be a teacher. When I was a young teenager, I wanted to be a private investigator. When I was an older teenager and hit my adult years, I wanted to be a writer. And, naturally, I wanted to be a wife and mother no matter what else I was doing. But I certainly never wanted to be an engineer, or architect, or anything along that line of work. It never even crossed my mind.

Since starting to work for a landscape architecture firm, I have learned many interesting things. For one, I have learned that a plot of land with fish ponds, flowers and bushes takes a lot more effort than I ever imagined. I’ve also learned a that specs can be the size of a dictionary, a mere inch can be as great as a mile and they spend many, many hours staring a their black screens in CAD. If the latter a landscape architect doth make, then I have joined their ranks.

We have one person that does most of the CAD work in the office. Amber spends all eight to ten hours of her four-day work week at the computer drawing on her pad, typing in labels, and layering sets. The other architects spend their own hours fiddling with their black screens as well, but when there are drawings due on three national cemeteries at one time…well, another pair of hands would be most helpful. Finding someone with the skills to spend a few hours a week working in CAD isn’t easy. So, they decided to set their sights a little lower: me.

Now I can’t draw. And those black CAD screens are a little frightening. But I can type over 100 words a minute, I can use a mouse quite proficiently, and I’m a pretty quick learner. So, this week after a 15-minute lesson I am now sitting at a computer staring at my own black screen. Now don’t get any wild ideas that I learned CAD in fifteen minutes. Not at all. I learned how to label in 15 minutes, which almost anyone who has spent hours fooling with text boxes and arrows in Word can do. But I have to say I’ve never seen my co-workers quite so pleased with my work. Finally, I can do something they understand! And since I can…well, I can see quite a bit more work in my future. So much that Pat warned me not to become too good at it – a warning that is probably very wise.

Still, I have to admit that I am a bit proud of this tiny new accomplishment. At the very least I have overcome my fear of their black screens. And I’ve learned something new.