After I built the boat desk, I declared to myself that I am a creative type and I need to focus on that. I thought to myself, “Why did I always undervalue this facet of me? So I became introspective.
I started to search through the mental reels of my life to recall other times I had been creative but just took it for granted. I thought about the first thing I ever built. I was in high school and I ordered a kit for a canoe, which I built with a high school friend, in my basement. I christened it, the “Henriette”, after my high school sweetheart.
I launched it in a friend’s swimming pool to test for leaks before I took it out on the rivers in Missouri where I grew up. So the boat desk was the first thing I ever designed, but it was the second thing I ever built. Building the canoe was the first time I realized I like building things and I was good with my hands.
But I didn’t see the connection between the fun I had building it and the gift of being good with my hands. I didn’t realize that it was a gift I was given and I should develop and nurture it.
