Last weekend when we were babysitting another family, one of the girls drew Evelyn and Claire this adorable drawing. In it, Claire is riding Dancer and Evelyn’s atop Stoney. They’re trekking through the desert, full of cactus and scorpions. So what’s so significant about this sketch? It holds the key to where we’re headed this winter.
One of the ways to be a successful aerospace engineer is to complete several internships with companies. It gives you job experience and is more likely to land you a job upon graduation. Plus, the pay and benefits are welcoming to impoverished students.
Jack has always been enchanted by space which is why he’s chosen his particular field of study. I am more than thrilled for him knowing exactly what he wants to do. My only stumbling block is where all of these jobs tend to be located: a majority are far from my Midwestern home.
We’ll be moving near McGregor, Texas for a few months. I know what you’re thinking: She needs her head checked! The drawing is probably accurate, save for needing a few mounds of fire ants.
Jack will be working for a company called SpaceX. He’s assigned to their testing facility, where they are engineering all kinds of equipment with the goal of carrying humans to other planets. If I understand correctly, they’re also competing with other companies to take over for NASA so we’re not outsourcing trips to the space station to other countries. Here’s a quick video about a project the company’s working on:
It should be an adventure and Jack keeps reassuring me that I’ll come to love Texas too. He’s probably right but I know I’m going to horribly miss our animals–none of them are coming with us and Texas is too far to drive back every weekend like we’d been doing during Jack’s last co-op with Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I’ll miss the land, the quiet, the seclusion but I’ll survive. I’ll worry and fret the whole time I’m gone but once we’re back, I’ll be even more in love with home.
