Decisions


Though there have been many fulfilling and happy moments, along with disappointing ones, in my life, there have only been a few memories and moments that define who I am. One of the most important being the day I went to Strawberry Bank though dull to some, intoxicatingly beautiful to me. This is when I decided what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Before the 4th grade I was set on being a chef. Not because I enjoyed cooking, or even because I was actually good at it. It was because I felt special. For the longest time I thought of it as my forte, my “outside of the box” job that not many other people did. It wasn’t until that field trip with Mrs. Fanning’s fourth grade class that I got a taste of what would set my plans in action. For the first time, my mother had attended the field trip instead of my dad. Which I couldn’t be more pleased with. My dad has a way of making everything we do educational apposed to the way my mom does it. Everyday was meant for living, is how my mom lives. She’s fun and for some reason is convinced that I am her twin.

Strawberry Bank is a small “town” in Portsmouth that has been preserved since colonial times. There are people that act out things that happened then. For an example, we got make our own bread and cook it in a brick oven. This place amazed me. It was built on beliefs that time and age is beautiful. That is how I see things. The way I hope others see or want to see the world. Beautiful.

I have a thing for architecture. I don’t know what it is, but it is so beautiful to me. It’s seeing beauty in things that may not have been accepted as that during its time. When I was there I saw an entire house preserved from the 1950’s. With its bright red fridge and white and black checkered floors. It was incredible. It reminded me of how the world should be. Clean, inspirational, classic, and happy. I wish life were still like that. It seems to me that everyone cared to each other unconditionally.

Strawberry Bank’s love for classic architecture and desire to impress is what changed my mind from chef to architect. There must have been something in the water there, because since I returned from there, six years ago, I can’t get it out of my head. It’s weird that I loved it so much, yet have no returned there since then. They offer an internship for 16 year olds that I will be doing in April. This will be my fateful return to the promise land. Will I feel the same, who knows? I’m worried though, that my lack of presence there has changed my outlook. That because I haven’t been there for so long, my memories are artificial that I only “remember” them because that’s how I want Strawberry Bank to be. Timeless. Classic. Something I can’t get enough of.

I’m passionate about many things and though I love cosmetology, and I like to think I’m good at it, there is nothing quite like the discovering of how things were before us and how we got here today. Don’t get me wrong, the occasional swipe of an eye shadow brush gets my creative juices flowing, but it just doesn’t compare to the feeling I get sitting in a civics or social studies class, learning the things that even allow me to learn today and the things that led up to today’s life.

Its’ hard for most people to imagine life without electricity and heat. Not having the Internet or the mall. These people lived their lives without the things we have today, and did it well. They were innovators. They used fire to heat, they hunt to eat, and the worked to survive. These men and women has perseverance and a work ethic, which in today’s society we lack. If we can’t get something the first time we stop trying. I long to have the morals these people had.

That is right, I, Taylor Gagnon, the patron I am, has pledged to become an architect. I will save this planet of the things it lacks: resources, love for the arts, and structural creativity. I think there are moments in everybody’s life that you need to decide where you’re going. Am I going up or down, right or left, am I going to college or not? These are the moments that define who we are and where we will be the rest of our lives. My place in this world is as a high school student, but because of Strawberry Bank, I will be a world-class architect.