On Empowerment (Part1)

When I was younger, I never thought much about how I loved the toys that I could build structures with. I didn’t think it was odd that I helped my dad around the house, helping him fix cracks and leaks at a young age.

I did think it was pretty cool when my dad let me use the drill to put up a shelf in our house for the first time

I grew up with a family that would rather make something themselves than go out and buy it. If something needed repair, someone in my family could always find a way to fix it. I didn’t know I was living in a home of “DIY”‘ers and “sustainable and eco friendly” makers. They knew what they knew in order to maintain a nice quality of life for themselves.

I didn’t know how much my love of creating the best tri-fold boards and experiments for the grade science fairs would make me a good public speaker and designer. I always was proud of myself for not reading from my board, but instead talking to the audience directly, unrehearsed. All I wanted to do was make Rube Goldberg machines, tinker with things, and be a Myth Buster.

I don’t believe that we should step so far back in time that we ignore the advantages of technology and it’s ability to educate young kids. Watching as much television as I did gave me a lot of information about how things were made that my school never mentioned. I’d watch home improvement shows, “The New Yankee Workshop”, Bob Ross’s soothing voice, “Monster Garage” and other bike-building shows.

What I do believe in is a balance between the tangible and virtual worlds. I think it’s important to understand some more basic, hands-on skills, before heading into the more complex virtual world. We teach kids how to do arithmetic first on paper, and then once it’s mastered, students can use calculators to speed up the process. When I was recently learning CAD programs, I understood how they worked because of all of the math courses I took in high school. I understood the programs and equipment as outputs of certain functions. It’s also how I was able to wrap my mind around how coding works.

I also wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to get such a hands-on and elite education as I do now, if it weren’t for a free class at MoMA the summer before my senior year when I realized that I actually could go into the art field. Up until that point, I was going to apply to more technical “STEM” based colleges. I never thought I had much artistic talent because I had a hard time drawing/painting. I didn’t consider how all the hand-made pop up and collaged cards were also art, or that maybe I just had a knack for three-dimensional work instead. In that one class I was introduced to different (non-traditional) sculpture techniques, and I realized I could do it.

After looking back on all of these little moments I had taken for granted when I was younger, I realize what was most important about my love of science fairs, DIY shows, and introduction to the art world right before college apps, was that each of these things made me feel empowered. The ability to solve problems through experimentation, speak about my work confidently, and think organically through my hands to produce something tangible really made me feel validated as someone who thought differently.

One of my goals is to make these opportunities I had available to me, available to a wider audience. I want to encourage empowerment through making. This blog serves as my research into how “empowerment making” works, creating a subscription box service that empowers users through games and tasks related to the real-world, and I suppose as a manifesto.