All of this. We are back on the same wavelength.
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Bill, can I share your response on another forum post? (Obviously with attribution to you!)
It’s just such a succinct and well written response about being a maker as part of a larger social role, and resonated so highly for me!
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Hi @aclynne … mine might be a bit different story…and it will be long but there is a very happy (non-ending) result of becoming a part of a makerspace.
@geek2nurse — I guess I don’t need to reiterate that…that was my life for 1/2 of my life!! I was raising my children and took up photography and scrapbooking which turned into digital scrapbooking and all kinds of crafts. Went on occasional weekends with other scrapbookers to get away and preserve our memories in scrapbooks. I turned to digital scrapbooking and loved the portability of it. Used our Silhouette machine for cutting vinyl robots & words for our van for our robotic trips.
Then…a friend that I had met through a local group (we worked on projects and were building a power wheels electric racing car) … kept telling me I should visit the local makerspace because I would just really fit in.
Well a couple of months later my family and another family from our children’s robotics team raced our power wheels car at Maker Faire and I met one of the competing teams…the local makerspace. I went to their meeting the very next week…dragging along my VERY hesitant teenagers and husband. I walked into the underground cave, looked around at the people at their 3D printers, people coding, and working on a variety of projects…and I said “I am home”. I joined that night. From what I have been told, I was the first female that joined as a full time member and brought the rest of the family (instead of the other way around)…99% of the time it was me that was at the makerspace. I built my first 3D printer from scratch as a member of this group.
It’s been about 10 years…my life has changed COMPLETELY, a 360 degree turn if you will. These people I met and gave me the courage, the friendship, and taught me to believe in myself again and that I was smart and could do what I set my mind to do.
Fast forward 8 years … I moved the obstacle that was always in my way … I have graduated from college with 2 degrees Magna cum laude in Networking and a keen interest and passion for Cybersecurity (keep in mind my oldest is just over 30). I had wanted to go to college since high school and was forbidden and constantly told I wasn’t smart enough.
I now have my dream job and a new husband who was by my side for all of this. He is my best friend and I met him through the Makerspace.
I try to give, share, teach and share my compassion for just what a makerspace and their people can do for you and what you can do for others … I have discovered a whole new life through creating, crafting, designing, teaching, racing, friendship, love and a whole new world for myself and my family. To paraphrase…ask not what your makerspace can do for you… be the makerspace … and both will be in a better place because of it.
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Of course you can. That is how I feel and why I share! I have gotten so much from this community I want to give back all that I can.
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This post and its first response by @marieregency is so very meta. You’d think a reply just cheering would ad no value but it did in that I mostly skipped over this the first time through and seeing @marieregency response I came back and read it carefully.
As you say, this applies to more than the maker world.
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