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For three years now I have been working for Modern. You can bet that as a college graduate, my first thought wasn’t “I’m going to work for a magazine about METALWORKING!” But here I am—part of the industry. I chose an extra technical field much to my math-and-science-hating, undergraduate self’s chagrin.

You’d think that after three years it wouldn’t shock me when my work life crept into my personal life, either. For instance, I was at a pancake house in Gatlinburg on vacation and a man stopped me to comment on my shirt, which had the logo of a prominent machine tool builder. We got to talking about the shop he worked in, and the various machines he worked with on a daily basis. Call me nerdy, but I found it pretty cool being able to talk about my work with someone who could relate to it. I also enjoyed hearing his perspective on the various machines he used.

Fast forward to May 2 of this year. I ran the Flying Pig half marathon in Cincinnati. Later, I found out that the overall winner of the full marathon was Brian List, a Makino applications engineer. Small world? Brian has worked for Makino since 2003, when he started as a co-op.

“We are really proud of Brian,” says Mark Larson, Makino’s titanium R&D leader. “He is one of our most valued up-an-coming engineers, consistently delivering high-quality work and innovative solutions to the team. One of his primary goals as a Makino employee is to help our customers achieve faster cycle times, so it’s no surprise that this need-for-speed translates into his personal endeavors as well.”

I guess it just goes to show that metalworking really touches us all—in everything we do.