The eternal engineering identity crisis! Friends picture us lounging around like The Big Bang Theory cast, while parents proudly imagine us in hard hats reviewing blueprints (because that engineering degree was expensive). Society sees us as pocket-protector nerds, and potential dates assume we're all stuck in 1980s computer labs.
Meanwhile, bosses expect us to MacGyver solutions with duct tape and zip ties, kids think we drive Thomas the Tank Engine, and we're over here fantasizing about building Mars rovers or designing Audis.
Reality? Just another human staring at screens, debugging code, and questioning life choices while Excel crashes for the third time today. The gap between expectation and reality is approximately 9.81 m/s² – the exact acceleration at which our dreams fall back to earth!