Best of Both Worlds

It was a rather balmy morning and by some kind of miracle the OJT Orientation managed to make me feel motivated I could almost sprint all the way to the venue without minding the almost 10 kilometer distance at all.

“Please welcome, our Senior Process Engineer, here to discuss about the cement process flow. Let us all give him a hand.”

Certainly! At the sound of his position, I even thought he could also have my feet. He thanked us, and his next statement hit home.

“I am a Chemical engineer by profession...”

Surprised? No.

Amazed? Na-ah.

Rather, I was happy that a chemical engineer by profession is a senior process engineer, and not a laboratory detainee.

It is a common foreknowledge amongst incoming OJT’s that the stigma brought by the word chemical is very much pronounced even when appended with the word engineering. Hence, I’d already projected to the will of universe that time that even though my course is harder to spell, and takes longer to fully write, I’d still end up doing B.S. Chemistry stuff. And true enough, by the incontrovertible law of attraction, the universe projected it back.

Don’t get me wrong. I love being in the Quality Assurance Department. My supervisors, and of course the manager, are people you can easily get along. They were a very kind group, and somehow, now that the training is over, I miss them. I miss how I greet them good morning when I time in, arguing that a minute before noon is technically, still, morning. I miss how I was asked by the manager to make a calendar of events and how he was surprised by the apparent expertise of how I constructed it, not knowing there are plenty of calendar templates available for download. I miss the feeling of apprehension every time the phone rang simply because I might become my unrefined self and brush telephone etiquette away. I miss being practically drowned in cement samples waiting to be analyzed, and of course, I miss break time moments with employees and fellow trainees alike (especially the free meals and the “kuha lang mog bisag unsa sa canteen, i-charge lang sa akoa” line).

But sentimentality aside, while I was working in the laboratory I felt like singing Streisand’s “A piece of sky,” or Freddie Mercury’s “Break Free.” I have long since harbored the adventurous feeling that chemineers are supposed to crush, grind, agitate, sub-sonically flow, or isenthalpically throttle and not titrate, stir, filter, analytically weigh or precisely standardize. That is, as blatant as Section 4 of Article I of the Chemical Engineering Law which defines chemineering practice as, “… excluding chemical analysis and operation of the chemical laboratory…” However I have to make it clear, that even though at this premise the objective of the training seems to be flawed, I do not undermine the administration’s effort to offer quality apprenticeship and the things I had learned, developed and cultivated during the duration of my worthwhile adventure, and that even though I spent most of my time on the laboratory, there were a couple of instances where I was asked by the process engineers to do nothing short of discharge calibration of conveyor belt for gypsum and maintenance of dryers, valves, cyclones, and other equipment.

The world is not black or white. Having an amazing learning experience both academically and socially doesn’t have to be constrained by the dictums. Yes, I was at the laboratory, mostly, and according to the icy statement it is not definitive of the practice of my profession. But chemical engineering practice does not stop at those criteria. A true chemical engineer is someone who loves being one, who delights in being one, and is proud to declare that he is one despite the apparent misplacement in the laboratory.

“I am a Chemical Engineer by profession…” is insufficient.

“I am a Chemical Engineer by heart…” sums it all.

During my training I was lucky enough to say I had the best of both worlds. True, excursions to the process line might be sporadic due to safety concerns, but the moment it came, I had the most of it. Somehow, my assignment in the lab made me even more eager to discover the art and science of Chemical Engineering.

[06.29.10]