@January 30, 2022
After I had run out of reading material as a child, my father recommended Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History by Fawn M. Brodie. This was a weighty read for a 12 year old. After my father explained what a renaissance man was, I eagerly and earnestly devoured the book. Little did I know at the time what an impact this would have on my life 13 years later.
Sitting across from the President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation wasn’t intimidating in and of itself. His interest in neuroscience was unexpected and disarming. While happy he paid close attention to a subject that interested me very much as an undergraduate, I was more interested in fulfilling a decade old obsession with Thomas Jefferson, specifically, getting the opportunity to explore the tangible wonder of his vast mind in the form of Monticello - the home he lovingly created and reworked over the course of 40 years.
If it weren’t for the summer gigs I had taken as a painter and learned everything I could about the craft, there is no way I would be sitting here now. Without the academic credentials to work on Jefferson’s papers (a masters degree, at the time) ‘restoration’ was the only other opening and one in which I felt fully qualified for. It didn’t matter to me that a prerequisite background in all things Thomas Jefferson was hardly a requirement for working on Monticello. My primary focus was to get an opportunity to explore all 11,000 sq. ft. of the house on the mountain, including the dome. While the tour of the property, which amounted to 6-7 rooms on the first floor, had whetted my appetite, I wanted to see, touch, smell, and feel it all. And the opportunity to do that was sitting right in front of me, smiling as we discussed neurotransmitters, Steven Pinker, and programmed neuronal cell death.
You see, if it weren’t for my Dad handing me that book, which informed and inspired my perspective as a pre-teen and lazy painters as colleagues as a young adult, I never would’ve wound up working in restoration at Monticello and getting the opportunity to bring life to the words I had read. Most people don’t get an opportunity like this. Was I lucky? Of course I was lucky, but in hindsight, my insatiable curiosity about the world and fearlessness to forge my own path in life also had a lot to do with it. All dots are much easier to connect in hindsight. All futures are possible. It’s important to embrace experience and really pay attention to being an active participant in your own life. It’s one of the few things you actually have control over.