Share the Dream: My Life, My Focus, My Goal Share the Dream: My Life, My Focus, My Goal: Williamson, Ian

Share the Dream essay by Ian Williamson

There are many universal truths that we all know about whether the argument is the sky is blue or that grass is green, there are some things that are simply fact. One of those many things that many out there know is that you are not to mess around with Caribbean mothers. Although she didn't like school very much either, she couldn't emphasize more how important school was to my future. My father, who is an electrician, never really had much of an opinion on what he thought I should do with my life, but he always stressed how important it is to have some degree of education to make it farther than most in life. Being raised in a family full of primarily medical practitioners and engineers, I felt like there was always a heavy weight when it came to how far I should take my education. Not only were there expectations with my education, but there was also always a major emphasis on my need to learn how to use my hands. From vehicles to wall outlets, to landscaping, my father and grandparents raised me to be a sort of jack of all trades. This was for good reason though as I grew up with a many different skills and knowledge to be successful and take my skills to build a career but unfortunately with aspirations like mine, I knew that I would need to reach a bit further than just a handyman.

After going into high school, I could never share the love for school as my parents and their siblings did, in my elementary school years a had attended a music school where I spent years learning various instruments from the trumpet and saxophone to the viola and cello. I don’t remember the class settings as much, but I can clearly remember my love for the arts like music and film had never wavered. After leaving that school due to a decline in the quality of education, I was then sent to a catholic school where I was missing a chunk of myself. I had no longer played any instruments, no sports, and really a short list of hobbies but if there was one thing it did for me it was challenge me. I was finally around people who I actually felt like were smarter than me which then pushed me to be far better than I was educationally. Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever, after being forced to leave for money reasons I had landed myself at a school in Foxborough Massachusetts, this ended up being some of my most dramatic changes in my life not only because of the area but the culture as well. Being in a pwi and traveling a great distance to attend the school, I never really fit in, nor did I really have the chance to. I lived in Boston and commuted everyday which was about a 35-minute ride, which was not only exhausting but also isolating. Now it wasn’t all bad as I ended up joining the football, lacrosse and track teams, becoming a three-sport athlete. This didn’t last long as I soon had to start working to maintain my vehicle and housing situation but the experiences that I had at that school was unlike many people I know and honestly felt like a huge step in the wrong direction.

In my early years there was nothing more important to me than a solid built Lego set. Known as the Lego kid in my family, everyone knew I had a deep connection to building things with my hands and applying myself for hours to make something great. So, when I had finally told my parents I wanted to be an engineer, they couldn’t be more supportive. As the more complicated the Legos got, the more my uncle who is a civil engineer got involved. Phone call after phone call I began to learn what is it that he does and how to do it and threw him I began developing the love I had for his career. He was always someone I looked up to but as someone who really wasn’t doing that amazing in school and hearing about him graduating from Northeastern University on a full scholarship, that path began to look out of reach. As the phone calls got longer and deeper with age, he began to realize my dislike in school. He knew I had the brain and the mentality to do what he does, but he also knew how my environment and school life was affecting me. After a while I realized that maybe his exact path wasn’t for me to follow, sure I liked to build Legos and computers just like he did, but I also loved to play sports and make music which he didn’t necessarily take a liking to. Luckily, I found a place that I could have access to all those things with. Not being too far from home allows me to travel back to my studio where I could continue make music, there’s a great lacrosse program that doesn’t take too much from my academics and in exchange I get a great team and get to enjoy the sport I once loved. And finally an engineering program known across the state for being one of the best overalls in almost all categories to obtain a bachelor’s in science.

Trying to become a Civil Engineer is no easy task. You can go from building foundations for buildings like the pentagon like my uncle, to designing a dam efficient enough to not only preserve the land around it but to also provide a safe and clean way to provide energy to nearby areas. One thing that I plan to accomplish when becoming a civil engineer is to master the efficiency aspect of a project. Growing upon in Boston I’ve seen roads, bridges and tunnels take years to be developed which disrupts the traffic on a near catastrophic level. I plan to use what I learn and my resources to provide quicker, safer and more efficient ways of travel, harvest energy, and provide housing in a city struggling to keep its projects managed.