Blog Post #2

A countless number of not so fond memories related to Lamott’s article about writing a shitty first draft of a restaurant view. From failed attempts at English essays to pathetic looking history projects on a Styrofoam trifold board, I have gone through my fair share of “shitty first drafts”. However, nothing I did in high school stuck out to me as much as one of my most vivid childhood memories. When I was around seven years old my parents decided to start building their dream home. For my parents, hailing from the concrete jungle of New York City, building a home with an open layout that sat on a piece of land with plenty of parking was a dream come true. They had worked their whole lives to build a house for their children to grow in. Nevertheless, as many people understand, building a home is not easy. Especially when you have been working to build this house for the past few decades. The most memorable part of my parents building this house was not the laying of brick, or installing plumbing, but it was the piles of blueprints. I remember coming home from school and seeing my parents hunched over the kitchen table going over the freshest set of blueprints that the designer had sent them. They examined every single aspect of their future home. Even the positioning of the closets had to be just right. Just like Lamott talked about in “Shitty First Drafts” I recall my parents scrapping a whole design, but keeping a few of the details. For instance, they would despise the plan of the kitchen, but thought that a window over the sink was a fantastic idea. As you could imagine, this was not a short process. New designs rolled in weekly, only to be replaced by a different one the next week. Eventually, my parents compromised on a design and the construction of their dream home began. The tedious designing of the house will always remind me, much like Lamott elaborated on, a shitty first draft can lead to something beautiful.