What Might Have Been

My grandfather was mechanical engineer through and through. Analytical, inventive, a tool and dye man who had a mind like a steel trap. He raised a son, never thinking that son would or should be anything but what he was, an engineer. So my dad sweat his way through math and physics classes, forcing his less methodical nature to bend to the laws of engineering. Lo and behold, he eventually graduated and nearly thirty years ago began what has become a lifetime career in something he may never have been naturally inclined to.

Perhaps my grandfather just didn't have the ability we "modern" parents do to let our kids steer their own path in life. Perhaps he directed a little too much. My dad has been blessed in his work though, and doesn't seem bitter or oppressed by the way his life panned out. 

Who knows what he may have been were it not for the shove he received in the engineering direction? A kindergarten teacher?

 Watching him today with the classmates of his grandsons, he seemed equally at home with both worlds... wires and wiry rascals.

This post is a part of The View From Here's weekly photo challenge.

This week's theme is "alter ego" and I couldn't help but think of my dad masquerading as a burly construction manager on one side of the world, while kneeling on the floor talking patiently with six year old's on the other.