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60 The PCB Design Magazine • October 2014 the moment is exactly what we need to help us grow. It can be really easy to miss the big picture of moments in our lives because we are so tightly focused on the problem that is right in front of us.. Some years back I was teaching a CAD class in Ontario, Canada, and decided that I should visit Niagara Falls. I had never seen the falls be- fore and since I didn't know if I would return to the area again, I decided to go for it. It was a two-hour drive from my hotel and I arrived in the early evening. As I was driving into the area of the falls, I could tell that I had arrived by the mist in the air and the amount activity that was going on, but I couldn't see the falls yet. Then, as I got within viewing range, I wasn't able to actually look at the falls because I had to con- centrate on driving in order to avoid running over the dozens of pedestrians who were cross- ing in front of me without paying attention. I found a place to park across from the visitor center, which happened to be blocking my view of the falls, and crossed the street to go inside. While looking at the information, I noticed that the visitor center had advertised a special on viewing the falls from behind the falls. This sounded very intriguing; I paid the price of ad- mission and entered the building. The key here is that I am now inside the visitor center at Ni- agara Falls, and I still have not actually seen the falls. As I remember it, you descend some stairs, then take an elevator down, then descend some more stairs to finally find yourself in a tunnel that braches out in two directions. One tunnel led to the viewing platform and the other to see the advertised "falls behind the falls." Since that is what I had come down to look at, I took the branch that led me to the area where you could see the falls from behind the falls. After walking to the end of the tunnel so see this amazing thing, it turned out to be a big…disap- pointment. I had been hearing about Niagara Falls all my life and was eagerly looking forward to this incredible marvel, and yet my first of- ficial look at the falls was something about the size of a shower door with falling water behind it. As I stood there looking at this "shower," the thought that was running through my mind was, "This is it? All this way for one of the great- est spectacles of nature known to the world, and this is it?" So what had happened? Niagara Falls hadn't changed, but my expectation was unfulfilled. If I had been able to see it while driving in, I would have seen the awesomeness of the falls from a distance. If I had paid more attention while walking down the tunnel I would have noticed the mist in the air, the water dripping from the roof of the tunnel, and the thunderous noise of the falls reverberating all around me. And I should have especially noticed how all of us were dressed in those fashionable yellow rain slickers. But no, I only focused on what was in front of me at the moment, a shower-sized window with a view that wasn't at all what I expected. Later I retraced my steps and took the tun- nel to the viewing platform and there was the view that I expected; Niagara Falls in all of its strength, power and glory. This served as a great lesson to me: Just be- cause what we see in front of us at the moment isn't what we expect, it doesn't mean that what is beyond it will be a disappointment. Some- times we just need the patience and persever- ance to succeed where we are currently before we will have the strength and skills to move on to the next step. When I took that contractor job that I tried so hard to avoid, I had no idea that I was help- ing to lay the skills that I would later rely on Figure 1: One view of niagara Falls. tim's takeaways BLINk AND YOU WILL MISS IT continues