Megan Webster: The Engineering PhD & The Poet

Wisconsin was a wonderful place to have my childhood. I grew up with a big backyard and trees and lakes. We canoed and hiked and played tennis in the summers. We skied and built snowmen in the winters. I was surrounded by beautiful nature, sprinkled with towns and the occasional city. There were stories everywhere. During my junior year of undergraduate, I was lucky enough to get to study abroad in wondrous Madrid for five months. Awash with history and steeped in culture, I fell in love with that old city. There were stories everywhere. After I obtained my Bachelors in chemistry though, I knew that I needed to move. Wisconsin would always be my home base, but traveling to Europe had opened my eyes to what more lay beyond my familiar borders. When it came time to go to graduate school, I knew I wanted to head east. I moved to New York City, the typical starry-eyed Midwestern kid who can’t believe the height of the skyscrapers, the speed of the cabs, or the price of the cocktails. And I fell madly in love with the culture, the languages, the art, and the sounds. There are stories here, many stories—rich, vibrant stories.

I may be a chemical engineer now, and it is a career that I’m very excited to continue to pursue, however I have been writing since before I knew letters. My mother worked as an accountant at a car dealership when I was very young and she would bring home any extra company planners at the end of the year that hadn’t been used. On weekends, lying on my stomach in the living room while Dad watched the Packers and Mom read, I would take up a pen and write “stories”. In truth they were scribbles that looked to me like my parent’s mysterious cursive handwriting that I wanted to figure out but hadn’t quite cracked yet, but I understood what the words meant. The desire to communicate and entertain and use lines and shapes to tell people things fascinated me.

I never got over that fascination. Throughout my professional life and personal life I have worn, and will continue to wear, many hats; this world is a complex, fascinating place and there are so many things to explore and discover. One of the constants throughout my life though will be writing.  This I know.