2006 - What a Year it was

(sorry if this is a long boring post. To be honest it wrote it for myself, so that down the road I can look back and remember the year that was 2006)

Wow...2006 will go down as probably the greatest year yet in my 23yr life thus far. Everything I accomplished, all of the goals I achieved, the dreams I lived. It truly was a year to remember.

My old football coach once said something to the effect of your accomplishments in 1 yr may not surprise you, but you'll be impressed by what you can accomplish in 5 yrs. Well this is the end of my first 5 yr plan. From the graduation of high school to now. And in that time...I'm truly amazed at everything I've been able to do.

But sticking with just this year. Well it really started in November 2005 with the tech tour that myself and Cole Nychka put together. The first ever Las Vegas tour in 2004 we struggled to get 15 people on the trip. Transform that to our next effort for Los Angeles in 2005. We had over 20 people signed up in the first day and 31 by three days time. So we upped the quota from 15 to 24 people. The fact that we got all of the rental cars, the motels, and the tours for 24 people...it was incredible that everything went off without a hitch. The Queen Mary, Rhythm and Hughes animation, the Port of Los Angeles, and the granddaddy Universal Studios.

From there we moved into the New Year and my second big event of the year the Engineering Career Fair. Once again, everything just seemed to come together. From 25 companies the year before to 41 companies!! Bringing in nearly $20,000 dollars for the Engineering Students' Society. Just a great event in all aspects. This coincided with Engineering Week which had me running around everywhere. We put on a good effort and came in second...but hey, we can't win every year. A great showing by the EE's and all around.

From there the focus was school school school. And most importantly Mec 460 our final design project! I had partnered with Allan Ziegler several times over my school years and we decided to try it one more time with the biggie project. Together with Patrick Chan and Elke Grimsrud we formed LEAP Engineering (the first letter from each of our names). It was truly the best group I've ever belonged to. We all had our strengths and we worked so well together. We met on the very first day of class, immediately got to work and was able to secure arguably the coolest project of them all, the Thermal Data Logger.

Essentially we were designing a drop proof (drop from 60m helicopter) heat resistant (a 2000'C forest fire for 2 mins) case to house a bunch of temperature measuring circuitry. These were to be dropped in front of forest fires to record how hot they got and how fast they traveled to better understand and model fires.

I won't go into the details, but suffice to say we excelled in all aspects of this project. Phase 1 report, Phase 2 report, the design building and testing of the logger, Phase 3 report, the poster and finally the oral presentation. In the end we were granted one of the most prestigious awards in Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering, the Capstone Award! One of the 4 winners from all of the MecE 460 groups. It was the greatest honor and a tribute to just an amazing group and a ton of work!

From there the end was in sight! 5 years of classes and lectures came to an end. We all received the Iron Ring, a memento given to all graduating engineers in Canada. I was also extremely honored to get both the Golden Geer Award and the Golden Moose Award. The first was for my volunteer work in Engineering over the years and the latter was for my contribution to Mechanical Engineering. I mean, nobody does all this volunteer work to receive an award I do it because I enjoy it. But it was nice to know that my 5 years there meant something. That I was able to help out and plan events and just make Engineering a more fun place to be while I was there.

From there more adventure began. May 25th myself and my two best friends from...well the age where I still wore diapers, headed off on our adventure to Europe. One last hurrah, because after this adult live were beginning. Adult lives with mortgages and significant others and jobs, maybe even marriage and kids (all of which I'm still trying to avoid). So off we went. London, Eschweiller, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona. Seeing sites we could never imagines, villages that took our breath away, castles where we seemingly relived the days of old, pubs where...well we sampled the local brew. Monuments, beaches, a bikini here and there...or not. Sure we might have got on each others nerves once in awhile (24hrs/28days will do that) but we will forever relive those memories with each other. Remember the time....

From there I set off and met with my 'buddy' from Engineering, Elandri. For two weeks we toured together along with her friend Elise all throughout Spain. A meal of home cooked fish, I can still taste and an all nighter of cards in Madrid. Next I went off alone and had many more adventures in Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. Scenery that has been forever burned into my consciousness because the beauty literally left me without air. Wow....

My final stop was Denmark, where I had an IAESTE job for 4 months. And yet again what a time it was. It was like nothing could go wrong for me this year. I had no idea I could meet so many people and most of all become such good friends so quickly. That is what I will take away from Denmark, the friendships. From my Hungarian roommate to the Hungarian girls, the Catalan's, the French, Greek, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Dutch, Brazilian, Spanish, Czech, Serbian, Finnish, Slovakian...can you believe it. All of these people, all such good friends. I know the chances of seeing them all again are small, but I truly hope I will. It's hard to say goodbye...

And then to end the year off...by chance I emailed an old friend I met at a conference down in Washington. I knew the chances were slim, after all we had only met twice over three years ago. But maybe, just maybe he would know of some places I could apply to, companies in the Aerospace field. Well he did me one better, he had a job for me and I accepted. So to start 2007 I'm on the move again, to Olympia Washington to start a new job.

To look back at 2006....can it ever be matched. It makes me worried for 2007, because i don't think it measure up.

But going back to what my coach said...now starts another 5 yr period. And I'm really excited to see what I can accomplish in the next 5 years. With the help of my always supportive friends and family here, my friends around the world and God the possibilities are endless.

So long 2006, I'll never forget you!

Logan