Old wise sayings are wise for a reason. "Don't tell me about it until you've walked a mile in his shoes." Ok, whatever it is, it's true. I can't say enough how true it is: perspective is everything. You have no idea what a preacher feels like and sees until you've been behind a pulpit. You don't have a clue as to the commitment it takes to be a high division 1 college basketball player until you've put in the time. What makes us think that we know what God's up to? We've never had his perspective, and since we haven't the key is to trust His perspective as best.

There are essentially two Professional organizations in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering that have student chapters at OSU. One is the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the other is the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. The former is social, larger, and rich; the latter is focused on professional development, and is small and "emerging." I'm Vice-President of Chapter Development of IIE, and a member of SME (my membership in SME is tenuous at best; essentially, I'm out when annual dues are requested of me). Since I'm an officer in IIE, I have a pro-IIE perspective, one that will spend energy to organize, promote, and even lure people to our meetings to be there, take part, and become members. I don't mind meetings that take more than a half hour, and I don't want to see people fidgeting to leave--because it's OUR meeting. But I have no such vested interest in SME, so I go to their meeting for the pizza, wish I were studying instead of sitting there waiting for it to end (I do apologize to any SME OSU members that may be reading this, but surely you know what I mean?).

You know, it's the perspective and the investment, totally.