Veolia Water Technologies by GineersNow Engineering Magazine GineersNow Engineering Magazine September 2016 | Page 52

WHY I MARRIED AN ENGINEER By Margaret Banford Reader, I married him. The man of my dreams, the love of my life, an engineer. I know what most of you will be thinking right now – an engineer?! A civil engineer?! Aren’t they all introverted, unsociable nerds who have pocket protectors? Well, reade r, maybe the stereotype has a grain of truth to it (though obviously not in every case), but why is that automatically a bad thing? Not everybody likes going out that much – I certainly don’t – and while it might take a few glasses of wine to get me to admit to an encyclopedic knowledge of the Wheel of Time series (I’ll never tell), what’s wrong with being nerdy? In practice, all it means is that you are knowledgeable about the things you love, and really…is there anything wrong with that? 52 SEPTEMBER 2016 Clean Water Technologies Be assured: smart really is the new sexy. I admit that sometimes we have our differences – our personalities can be very different, with him not understanding that I just need to vent sometimes: I don’t need any problems solved, I don’t want a reasonable voice explaining to me what is happening – I just want to be heard with a sympathetic ear! But all types of engineers – chemical engineers, mechanical engineers – have been trained to seek solutions for problems. That’s just how they approach things, and unfortunately it sometimes bleeds over into their personal lives too. All it took was an explanation (and, to be completely honest, a few reminders…), and my husband now lets me vent, gives me a hug or a drink depending on how bad the venting session was, and we get on with our lives!