Creation Myth

Yesterday, I mentioned that I would tell you a little about myself in a future post. Well, folks, because I'm away from my magic CAD box, the future is now.

I don't know what my namesake's misty origins are, but I grew up first in the midwest, but then moved to the southeast with my folks when I was 15. I went to college at UNC, at first studying physics but later switching to philosophy. Along the way, I found out I was a bit of a sinophile and took a smattering of courses in Chinese history and culture, and even studied the language for a semester. I also worked most of the time I was in school to pay the rent, but when I wasn't working I was spending my time soaking up the local brand of indie rock, seeing a lot of shows, dj-ing at WXYC, the awesome campus radio station and even interning briefly at Merge Records.

Anyway, I spent some time in England after college and then wound up in New York, putting my phat philosophys skillz to good use temping in a number of clerical jobs, more or less spinning my wheels. One lucky day, though, I applied for a job in a design and construction office that seemed a touch more interesting than what I was used to. It seemed like the majority of the job was purely clerical -- doing the books, filing, drafting correspondence -- but it also seemed like my prospective boss was also interested in hiring people with eclectic skill sets and finding ways to put them to good use. Before long I was taking field measurements, learning about how contractors and engineering consultants worked, and most exciting, learning about the design process.

I loved looking at plans and sitting in on problem-solving sessions, and I found it really exciting to be working in an office in which the staff were not only very creative, but also pragmatic problem-solvers, not opposed to jumping inside a catch-basin to check height of a run-off conduit. As strange as this might sound to any of my colleagues, it felt a bit like home.

Recently, a bit of a staff shortage at work gave me the opportunity to start doing some drafting and design work at the office. My company paid for me to take a class in AutoCAD and I jumped right into the thick of things, and (working closely with my boss) I've drafted the plans for several projects in the past 7 months or so. Now, I've done a lot of things to earn a buck before. I've managed the front end of a grocery store. I was Santa Claus and Mr. Peanut (not at the same time). I've written standardized test questions (sorry kids! I tried to be clear, at least.) I've shuffled about a ton of paperwork. But I've never done anything for pay that felt as good as designing plans for stuff that would actually get built under million-dollar contracts and be of real use to people. It was quite a rush.

So here I am. I plan on going back to school in a year or so, though I haven't exactly figured out the particulars, and I'm going to take another drafting class this summer. I don't know where this will lead me, but I know that I'm having the time of my life getting there..