Being an engineer has little to do with 'splainin' things -- it's sometimes much work for engineers to explain things to other engineers (we're engineers, not teachers). Being an engineer comprises three things: knowledge of How Things Work, education in Applying Same, and (sometimes) vision of Application Where It's Not Yet Been Tried. You clearly have the first in spades and at the very least a very good handle on the second.
I know little about CFIDS, but without it I bet you could still become an engineer. You just have to dumb down to our level. *\;^)
Golly, sion. I don't know what to say.
Had I not been sidelined by CFIDS, I would have learned something productive, like psychology or anthropology or something specific in either field.
I coulda been a CONTENDAH!
I would love to have been an anthropological psychologist, or better yet, one who specializes in fabrics...now THAT could have taken me beyond the horizon!!
Oh, no. That is not what it is. Nor is it the supposed "too intellectual".
Neither of those things applies.
What does apply, is finding out the rules of situations. Therapists are modern-day alchemists, still fumbling to discover those rules. I sympathize with them, but part of what drives them is trying to figure themselves out.
We all face that. Just as accepting what you have is the beginning of being content, accepting what you are is the beginning of realizing what you need to do to grow.
Engineering is much simpler. But you don't need to dumb anything down. It takes all the intellectual fire-power anyone can summon to do that job properly, because it involves every talent humanity has struggled with for all the ages; observation, experiment, practice, and flawless execution.
And then on the next assignment, you have to do it all over again.
We are all mere seedlings, with our feet planted in the dirt, and the blessings raining down on us, and the glory bedazzling us every day.
And with a spirit that tells us to accept it, to take it in, to make it all a part of us, and to find a way to make all of this into something more.