{"id":29538,"date":"2019-12-18T08:52:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T13:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=29538"},"modified":"2020-01-27T11:37:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:37:02","slug":"determination-and-dedication-quitting-was-not-an-option-for-chris-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2019\/12\/determination-and-dedication-quitting-was-not-an-option-for-chris-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Determination and dedication: Quitting was not an option for Chris Land"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chris Land received his Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering on Dec. 14 at the Fall 2019 Commencement Ceremony in McKenzie Arena.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chris Land wanted to be a mechanic.\u00a0 It was pretty much pre-destined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, my whole life I have been raised in a mechanic family. So, I’ve always been under the hood of vehicles, but I planned on being a garage mechanic or something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But pre-destiny didn\u2019t come true in his case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 16, I had a car accident and traumatic brain damage, so that took my balance away from me and put me in a wheelchair and on crutches. So that slowed me down significantly. Then I couldn’t balance and work under the hood as well as I could before, so I decided I would go with mechanical engineering because you get to do a lot of the work behind a desk.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Dec. 14, using crutches, Land walked across the stage in McKenzie Arena and was handed his bachelor\u2019s degree. He received a standing ovation from the arena crowd.<\/p>\n

Before the ceremony, he already knew the emotion he\u2019d feel at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelief. Yeah, relief. And that’s all that I know. It’ll be relieving and it’ll boost… It’ll make me feel like I did it. With God’s help, I did it. Now, with God, all things are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Land, who speaks clearly but slowly, already has used his knowledge to help others with physical disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was parallel bars to help kids with disabilities walk around. \u2026 It’s been so long ago I forget what his condition was, but I remember it had a table that rolled along the bars and that he could walk around and build Lego stuff on it. Or do homework.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now his plans are simply to find work. But there is one job that is his Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesign cars or aircraft,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in a team, my senior project was building a remote control airplane to enter a competition and it got awarded here as I think first or second in my chemical engineering. But it wasn’t just me, it was a team project and collaborative.<\/p>\n

That’s one thing I’ve learned here. You can’t do everything by yourself. \u201cYou don’t build it all. You build your part of it the best you can.”<\/p>\n

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