A Decade of Practice in Architecture
It’s been over a decade since I began my practice in architecture. There have been serious moments of doubt, times where I was sure I would quit. When I could not persevere, I learned to reframe my goals and update my mindset. All these years later I find myself with new reasons to fall in love again. I offer two important themes I’ve come to understand in my journey: beauty and patience.
Beauty lies in harmony. People make the mistake that beauty is akin to balance. Balance by its very nature is static and must occur simultaneously, where harmony is achieved over time and is dynamic. Life is beautiful because it is dynamic.
Patience is the highest form of trust. I trust that it will work out. I trust that you will find your way. I trust that things will come together in the end. Patience means that in times of uncertainty, you find trust in the process.
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Why I’m taking a Social Media Sabbatical
Over the last two years, I’ve struggled with why I continue to spend so much time on Social Media. It’s nice to celebrate your accomplishments, share your exciting adventures, and rally around a common cause. I understand these perceived benefits are part of what makes ecosystems like Instagram and Facebook attractive. When your life is publicly visible and freely observable, people make the leap that they’re up to date. It’s become clear to me that the cost of this is higher than its payoff. As Guiol writes, “Our curiosity gets dampened by the overabundance of information.” This is my personal experience with social media and why — at least for me — I think the negatives outweigh the positives. As Fischer writes “Identify how social media limits you, because it does.”
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The Man Who Changed My Life
Today would have been your thirty-second birthday. Five and a half years later I still think about you almost every day. I reflect on how grateful I am that I get another day. I contemplate how much I’ve grown, the distance I’ve traveled, and I grieve all the things you’ll never experience. The gap between September 25, 2015 and today is something I take very seriously. I’ve been thinking about writing you this letter for nearly five years: I just didn’t know what I wanted to say to everyone that matters to you.
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Essentialism: How to be Alone
For the first time in my life, I’ve come to grips with the idea of going to my grave alone. It’s taken me thirty-two years of repeated patterns to realize that I can do a lot of good in this life as a happy, whole individual. My friendships have become deeper, my attention more focused, and my mind clearer. I can truly devote myself to what matters, and no longer fall into the trap of performing what I think matters to other people.
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Five Books for a Lifetime
I’ve decided to create "Five Books for a Lifetime" as a way to wrap up the year and answer the following questions: What books do you give as a gift most often? Why would you ever want to own a book? Have you ever reread a book? Each one of these books I’ve read from cover-to-cover at least three times. They sit on my desk at home and I frequently reread sections or reference them when I need a piece of wisdom. In this article I give a concise summary of each of the five books that made me, followed by the reason why I chose them.
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What I Learned from 31 Days of Journaling
Four guidelines you can use to start your own journaling practice. I decided to start a daily journaling practice in 2020 and the results have been incredible: quickly see what I did each week of the year; identify patterns in my own faulty logic; see the first signs of injury during athletic training; and have the chance to reflect on how I could have reacted better during everyday situations.
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Five Trends at the 2018 National Trust Heritage Conference
The 2018 National Trust for Canada Heritage Conference: Opportunity Knocks, hosted in Fredericton, New Brunswick October 17–20. After attending many of the sessions, I noticed five key themes emerge from the conference and discussions: (1) Heritage Advocacy, (2) Recognition and Reconciliation, (3) Cultural Heritage & Alternative Approaches, (4) Climate Change & Sustainability, and (5) Rural Regeneration & Conservation.
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