Build

With my own hands.

I've always loved building things.  When I was little, my favorite toys were Legos and Knex and that sort of thing.  We had a sandbox in which I spent many an afternoon sculpting (and subsequently destroying) palaces, castles, or whole cities.  My best friend and I spent dozens of hammers and legions of nails building all manner of forts, half forts, semblances of forts in the woods behind his house.  I grew up and got a degree in engineering, but then decided that I wanted to spend my life building whole worlds instead, so in my spare time I work towards becoming an author instead.

Long story short, I tend to build things.

For just this reason, I'm somewhat of a tool junkie.  For the pasts several Christmases, my wishlist has usually included some manner of tool.  Drills, bits, pliers, screwdrivers, hammers, you name it, I've asked for it.  Built myself up a pretty respectable toolbox, and hopefully one day, I'll be able to move my tools and have a fairly respectable workshop.  The bigger the better, in my humble opinion.  Like, if I can ever get my hands on a lathe, I'm totally going to.

Because these days, there's something I find deeply calming about building things.  In the past, (and recently) when I'm at a low point in my life, I've often found a project to work on, something that I can design and build with my own hands.  I don't know why, but it helps me work through whatever I'm dealing with.  Maybe it's that, when I can't control some parts of my life and they are falling apart and not working , I can turn to something that I control, something that I'm good at, something that I can accomplish simply through my own sweat and ingenuity.  The specific project doesn't really matter, but taking a bunch of raw materials and making something useful or fun or beautiful out of them is deeply satisfying to me.

Makes me long for the days when I can have my own workshop.  You'll be able to tell when I finally do, because the next day, the local tool shop will be sold out.  Of everything.