I’ve Always Been a Maker

As far back as I can remember, I was making something. LEGOs, Lincoln Logs, K’NEX—I loved them all. I loved puzzles, creative projects, and anything that gave me the opportunity to build something.

I even made Pinewood Derby cars when my brother was in Boy Scouts. I wasn’t the Scout. I just wanted to make the cars!

My brother was the one who liked taking things apart. He famously dismantled a perfectly functional thermostat when he was three years old. He eventually became a mechanical engineer—which probably shouldn’t surprise anyone. Me? I wanted to create things.

The Future I Had Planned

Growing up in New Jersey, my parents would take us into New York City for special occasions. I remember staring up at the skyscrapers, fascinated by these enormous buildings towering above us.

I played soccer, and I was good at it. I had a plan—play in high school, continue in college, and eventually play professionally. I also planned to study physical therapy. I even wrote my career paper about it.

Then, when I was 16, I tore my ACL. Suddenly, I had to reconsider the future I’d spent so much time planning. That’s when I remembered my love of buildings. Everything around us was imagined and made by human hands.

I wanted to be part of that.

From Building Models
to Designing Buildings

During my senior year of high school, I built a scale model of Stonehenge for an architecture class. I earned an A, even though I was only auditing the course.

After graduation in 1999, my mom and I traveled to England, where I finally got to see the real Stonehenge. I was fascinated. My mom? Not so much. I used nearly an entire roll of film photographing it. She couldn’t understand why I needed so many pictures of what she considered “just a pile of rocks.”

More than 25 years later, I still think it was worth every frame.