The Wild Blue Yonder

You know that light at the end of the tunnel? The one Daniel has been seeing all year? Well, today he finally emerged from the darkness of undergrad academia into the light of having earned his Bachelor of Engineering with a major in aerospace engineering. This kid has been leaning towards a career in engineering almost all of his life. He did take a brief foray into the study of dinosaurs as a preschooler (At his preschool graduation when most kids announced that they wanted to be firefighters, policemen, or superheroes, he proudly proclaimed that he wanted to be a paleontologist. The people sitting behind us murmured that the parents must have coached him, not knowing we were the parents. I can assure you there was absolutely no input from us. It was 100% Daniel.) but by first grade he was firmly grounded in space travel. And his fascination with all things that fly has not diminished over the years.

Starting at about age four, Daniel turned his eyes and his aspirations to the sky. That was the year I sewed an astronaut costume for Halloween. In first grade he had the opportunity to meet a real astronaut and that solidified his desire to fly. As a fourth grader he discovered origami and a lifelong hobby was born. Within a few years, he progressed far enough that he became aware of the work of origami master and mathematician Robert Lang, who was deeply entrenched in the field of space origami. Meeting Lang was another experience that reinforced his passions. Cub Scout space derbies and teachers who gave him opportunities to build and launch rockets added further fuel to the fire. He visited as many airplane museums and attended as many airshows as he could, and his love of flight continued to grow. (In fact, the first time anyone in our family besides Nathan-who you will remember was one of Daniel’s roommates-met Tawni was at an airshow. Malia and I missed out on that one due to a complete lack of caring about the whole airplanes bit, but Kevin and Matthew got to meet her!) As his schooling progressed, he leaned into his strengths in math and sciences and decided engineering was the route he wanted to take. Post mission, he enrolled at USU and began the process of learning the nuts and bolts of engineering. I think one of the amazing things about Daniel is that despite the years of study and hard work, the many tests studied for and passed, and the many hours spent head down in his homework, he still gets just as excited about space travel as he did as a four-year-old. Only now that he has a better understanding of all the many things that have to be designed, produced and deployed perfectly to make it all happen, I think he appreciates it even more. As an example, he closely followed the launch and mission of the Artemis II last month with complete fascination. If you ask him about it, expect to get a detailed and enthusiastic account of the mission. His eyes light up and everything when he talks about it.

Today, Daniel reached a major milestone in his journey towards the sky. With his finals finished and his capstone project completed, it was finally graduation day. The college of engineering is one of the larger colleges at USU (although nowhere near as massive as the college Nathan is in-more on that tomorrow), so Daniel expected the graduation to be long. However, the speakers kept things concise, and with only about 340 graduates participating in the ceremony, it only took about 35 minutes to get through all the names. I had planned for a long haul and had my kindle and an audiobook all ready to go to quell the boredom, but I only ended up reading a few pages. 

After we were done with the official portion of graduation, we retired to Daniel and Tawni’s apartment for lunch followed by a copious amount of Aggie ice cream. Tawni’s parents and her youngest sister drove down from Idaho for the occasion and her two other sisters, both of whom live in Logan, came as well. It was so nice to visit with them on a day that was a bit slower than a wedding day! Unfortunately, Kevin and I were short on time as Malia needed us back home in time to help with her Arena scheduling for school next year. So, our visit was short. But I suspect there will be more occasions over the years to get to know Tawni’s family a bit better.

Now that Daniel has completed his undergraduate work, he will begin preparing to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which is basically a certification showing that he does indeed have the skills necessary to work as an engineer. He has been submitting job applications throughout this last year, and now that he is officially done with homework, he is going to lean into the job search. Tawni is gainfully employed so they will stay in Logan for now, but that is not their long-term plan. However, Daniel doesn’t know exactly what is next. It all depends on where the work takes him. He and Tawni are not only open to moving wherever they need to, but they also have a desire to live somewhere other than Utah. So, there may well be adventures in their future. The sky’s the limit and Daniel would love to be in a job that focuses on the broad expanse of the heavens. And I hope and pray that he will have that opportunity.