I grew up spending summers canoeing in Canada. When I found out that I could spend a month working completely without distractions on a project, I instantly began researching canoe designs and construction options. I negotiated an early graduation present from my dad who bought me the lumber. I visited Mr. Rambone, the Middle School technology teacher and convinced him to buy two router bits that I would need to mill the lumber correctly.

I settled on a cedar strip construction method, which uses long, thin pieces of cedar glued together along rounded tongue and groove edges (for which I needed the router bit). I ordered a book and plans from a company that assured that I could build the boat with little experience and few tools.

I started working on the canoe well before Senior Options began, putting in weekends and evenings to assure that I’d have something to show by the due date. As May turned into June, I coerced friends to come over and help with especially tricky steps, like laying the fiberglass and epoxy on the inside of the hull. I worked twelve, fourteen hours a day. I didn’t paddle the finished product until the summer after I’d graduated. The first few paddle strokes across a small mountain pond in the Berkshires transported me to adulthood. As I paddled away from shore and my proud parents, I looked ahead to college and future projects.

The journey continues for me some twelve years later, still largely in my canoe. Today I work as a research geologist. My work mostly concerns how rivers change downstream from dams. I therefore spend lots of time in my canoe deploying instruments and collecting sediment and water samples. Practicing long-term planning and diligence when building the canoe has served me well many times throughout college and my short career.