Nashville International Airport: Fiona and Julia

Last weekend, I decided it was time for a change of scenery, so I headed to the Nashville International Airport. I arrived around 12:30 p.m. on the overcast Saturday with my mother in tow (we planned to have a girl’s day afterwards) and stationed myself in one of the waiting lounges. Yes, lounge. Much unlike McGhee Tyson airport and its rows of sterile green waiting chairs facing straight ahead, the Nashville airport has two lounges on either side of the airport. One lounge houses a Starbucks and the other a Tootsie’s bar and both have large, comfortable arm chairs and sofas for seating. I sat on the Tootsie’s side.

Like always, I sat for a while, deciding who to interview and battling my fear of approaching them. However, this time, the battle wasn’t solely internal; I had my mom pushing me along.

“Just go! Now’s your chance!” she kept telling me as I eyed two girls who looked to be about my age.

I hadn’t spoken to anyone younger than 40 yet, and at least one of the girls was holding a beer, indicating that they planned to be there a while. They were ideal, but the unfamiliar set up of the waiting area made me hesitant. Many of the couches faced each other in a sort of semi-circle. Once I approached them, I would essentially be in a fishbowl. That was something I would just have to overcome. I didn’t drive all that way for nothing!

I stood up and walked over to them.

“Hey guys, do you mind if I talk to you for a minute? I have a somewhat odd request.”

When they agreed, I proceeded to explain my thesis like usual. Except this time, I was certain that they were young enough to actually understand blogging. Much to my advantage, they were both a year out of college and were familiar with the stress of thesis. They agreed to the interview.

I positioned myself in the seat beside them and asked for their names. A dark-haired, tan girl introduced herself as Fiona and her light-haired friend introduced herself as Julia.

“Are you waiting on someone today?” I asked, expecting for the answer to be yes; it was always yes.

“No, I’m actually flying out,” answered Julia.

Fiona and Julia were friends from college. Since graduation, they have parted ways. Julia lives in California and had been in Nashville for the weekend with a colleague, but she was flying back to California that afternoon. Fiona is now going to graduate school in St. Louis; however, given that Nashville is a much shorter distance than California, she drove in to see Julia. And in the name of my thesis, these two so kindly let me interrupt their last moments together.

Both originally from Northern California, they attended college in Long Beach, Ca. near Los Angeles. Julia majored in physics, and Fiona studied biology. When they told me this, I realized I was speaking to two incredibly intelligent women. Knowing that I use just about any excuse to procrastinate, I asked them what it was like having such difficult majors with the constant distraction of the beach and the LA entertainment.

“We used to study at the beach,” Julia responded, which sounded like an okay compromise to me.

Now recent graduates, they are furthering their careers. Julia works at an engineering company called L-3 communications where she helps test satellite components. The company, she tells me, is a Fortune 250 company. She’s been working for the company for nearly three years, first as an intern and then as an employee, and it’s where she hopes to continue working, though she may consider switching branches in the future. It’s clear that she’s a hard worker not only because she received a degree in physics but also because she typically works 10 hours a day 6 days a week.

Though Nashville was a rare break for Julia, her reason for being there was still work related. She told me she had come for a SWE (“swee”) conference, and in response to my confused look, she told me it stood for the Society of Women Engineers. She had come with a fellow female colleague for the WE15 conference hosted by SWE. The SWE website described the conference as “the best opportunity you and your company will have in 2015 to reach out to new colleagues and talent, provide professional development to current employees and support women in engineering and technology.”

Not unaware of the multiple discussions involving women in traditionally male-dominated fields such as science and engineering, I asked Julia if she felt gender discrimination was a problem in her field of work.

“I never used to think that, but the more time I spend in the industry, yes,” she replied.

She proceeded to tell me that there were times that she would be in a room full of 10 men and offer a valid explanation or suggestion that men with less experience than her would simply dismiss as invalid. As a woman, it was hard not to be taken aback by this explanation, but nonetheless, it made me understand how important it is to support Julia and the many women engineers like her.

Fiona’s life since college is no less impressive. She is now attending graduate school biology and tells me that she hopes to one day go into cancer research. After grad school, she will likely move back to California because with its multiple bioengineering agencies, it is an ideal state for her to work in. Her dream job? Working with a company called Genentech. The company is headquartered in San Francisco that dedicates its work to developing medical solutions to difficult-to-solve medical issues.

It’s clear to me that Fiona is tough. She wants to dedicate her career to fighting a life-threatening disease, and in her spare time, she practices actual fighting her kickboxing classes.

“It’s nice when you have frustrating days in lab and you can just go and hit a bag,” Fiona tells me.

Though she hasn’t done any boxing inside the rink, she tells me that she would consider doing it at least once. She brings up Ronda Rousey, an undefeated martial artist and the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal in Judo.

“If I was like her, I’d do it multiple times,” said Fiona, admitting that she’s competitive.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little intimidated by the two women sitting in front of me. They were clearly both intelligent and tough, looking to make a change in the world instead of waiting for it to come. But since so much of their time seemed to be dedicated to their careers, I asked if they ever had time to travel or get away.

Since living in St. Louis, Fiona has visited Chicago twice. Julia tells me she has also visited the city multiple times and wouldn’t be opposed to living there someday. She somehow seems to avoid the tourist attractions when she goes, though, and admits that she has never seen “Cloud Gate” better known as “the Bean.” Fiona and I could do nothing but gasp in disbelief at this statement.

The two have also travelled outside of the U.S. Julia tells me that she wishes she could have studied abroad, but her academic advisor essentially told her she would need to change her major if that was something she wanted to do. So Julia gave up that hope and instead used her summers to travel. She has backpacked through Europe with her sister as well as gone on several random family trips.

“I had a cousin that got married on a cruise,” she told me, and her family stayed on board afterwards for the trip.

After graduation, Fiona went with her aunt and uncle to Belize who visit the country every other year. She has also visited her mom’s homeland of Ireland. But for now, both of them seem to be fairly invested in their futures and careers, and though neither of them seems to want to give up traveling anytime soon, they seemed happy that they took advantage of it when they could.

Not wanting to take up any more of their time together, I thanked them for their time and dismissed myself. I found it odd to be the one dismissing myself, since every other interview I had done was on the other person’s schedule.

After finishing my interview, I located my mom.

“Well?” she asked. “How was it?”

I told her that I don’t think I could have picked anyone better, explaining the two girls’ impressive resume’s to her. Afterwards, we proceeded to spend another hour in the airport in search of potential subjects before our hunger finally won, and we departed. I was satisfied with one successful interview.