Some of the first scents I recall are those found in hardware stores. Early memories for me consist of the sounds of steel tools hitting the concrete floors in workshops, climbing into the attics of buildings and wincing as I learned the hard way what fiberglass felt like, running my fingers over ductwork, and listening to the sounds of AC units buzzing while I held my hand over the top to feel the air coming out.

Mimi at a service call for Delta Airlines, one of Egg Systems’ HVAC clients. Photo courtesy of Mimi Egg.

I’d consider myself lucky. I grew up in a fascinating transition as a kid who rewound VCR tapes and dropped them off at Blockbuster with my mother, jumped up and down when I got my first portable CD player and came inside after a long day of playing outside and drinking hose water when I gave into the exhaustion and thirst brought on by nonstop play. I also recall my first touchscreen device as a teen, the beginnings of AI, and social media booming as I grew up. Being a ‘90s kid puts me in a unique position to have seen things happen in the blink of an eye, but nothing was quite as interesting to me as my father’s business.

There are some core memories for me revolving around my dad fixing things. I sat in the back room of a Twistee Treat and ate an incredibly messy chocolate ice cream cone while I watched him fix a machine like it was the easiest thing in the world. I never quite understood it, but I split my time evenly between that and the episode of Spongebob playing on the small T.V. in the back. I rode along in his red truck—the truck I was promised and never received, Dad. If you’re reading this, I still hold a grudge. We went on service calls together and I helped however I could, but I truly just wanted to spend time with my dad and see him fix things like only geniuses could in the shows I watched. 

Mimi and Jay Egg leaving for a service call in 2009. Photo courtesy of Mimi Egg.

As I grew up, I understood better what Egg Systems (the HVAC company Jay owned and operated throughout much of my childhood) did for their clientele. I had the chance to see how an office ran, how a group of techs ran service calls, and how I could help.

Organically, things changed. The shift from air-source HVAC to Geothermal happened right before my eyes and I had the extraordinary chance, as the child of someone right in the middle of it, to tag along and see it in real time.

I was still running around and watching cartoons when my father was asked by McGraw Hill to write a book on geothermal. All of that was unexplored to me. It felt like I was no longer in the loop, and my status as the self-proclaimed “princess of the HVAC industry” had become obsolete.

The Egg Family (Left to right: Benny, Kristy, Mimi, Taylor, Danny, Theron, May, Jordan, Jay). Photo courtesy of Mimi Egg.

The world was bigger all of a sudden. It changed the direction of my life, rerouting me toward something that I felt was very important: green energy. I was able to learn about geothermal through peeking around while Jay worked, reading his first book for McGraw Hill, and eventually taking an outright interest and involving myself in the work. 

In the blink of an eye, my dad was writing consistently, speaking at events, traveling, and making connections with people I have now known since the early 2010’s. A whirlwind is a gentle term for how it felt for the family, but it was a huge blessing to enter into that new era. 

I attended events on and off with Jay throughout my teen years mostly, visiting NYC, California, and so on. I got a taste for what it’s like to be in the middle of it and suddenly I was leaning into the industry bit by bit. 

A cold morning on the infamous red truck. Photo courtesy of Mimi Egg.

Fifteen years passed since that first book was released and my interests jumped about dramatically, but I always found myself coming right back to what Jay was doing. I hopped back and forth between seeking various careers, but I’ve found my way here at twenty-five. The dream was always to write, to make exciting stories that give people a chance to escape the world and enter something fantastical, but that dream took a pause when I got into the industry. I found out that I have the chance to write about how to better the world—how to save it, even. The geothermal industry was there as I grew up, expanding alongside me and I have learned so much over the years without having realized any of it at the time.

After much work, schooling, internships, and the absolutely crazy decision to work with family members, I am doing something I love. I get to write, I am fortunate enough to speak at conferences, and I’m involved in some incredible work happening all around the world to reduce carbon emissions and use the earth to heat and cool us, and I am able to stand proud in the industry as an LGBTQAI+ representative with DE&I.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have grown up in tandem with the geothermal boom. I’ve seen it all happen and I’ve had an expert in the field there to explain every step of the way. Becoming a part of this all, being able to write about new technology, the industry, and unions has been a thrill and I plan to continue as long as the industry continues to make impressive progress.