P H I L O S O P H Y
This site is not perfect. Honestly, it is far from perfect. In my perfectionist, enneagram one (so I've been told) brain, this site doesn't meet "the standard".
Perfect would have been learning CSS, HTML, Java, JavaScript, and making this website from scratch, not using a template.
Perfect would have been finding the most ideal, aesthetically pleasing color palette and its specific hex codes.
Perfect would have been having pictures to supplement every piece of text; pictures of me and others laughing and enjoying Making together.
Perfect would have been elaborate multi-step Maker-centric lessons that I got to do with my students.
Perfect would have been getting to present this to you in person. No. Zoom.
By the standards of perfectionists, this site doesn't meet the cut.
However, to me, a recovering perfectionist, this site is a representation of exactly what it means to be a Maker. In the creation process of this Maker site, I took to looking at previous Maker showcases as "examples". I eventually realized that doing that was doing more harm than it was good. Doing that was setting the standard. Doing that was setting a bar that had to be surpassed in order to be .... well, perfect. But, that isn't Making. Frankly, having the mindset to use someone else's work as a means to judge your own is so far from my own core belief of what Making is. It's startling that I was trying to do it to myself.
Making is throwing perfection in with the garbage. Making is finding the joy in the doing, the joy in the process, rather than solely focusing on the joy of the product and the confirmation that comes from others. Making is internal. Making is spiritual. Making is connecting with you and nobody else in the Universe. Making is whatever you want it to be. There are no standards. There is no bar. There should be no comparison.
This Maker showcase won't look like the others. When you read these words, it won't sound like the others. It will be the oddball. It will be the one that doesn't fit in. And I'm perfectly okay with that. Why? Because that's what Making is.
Making is NOT stressing myself out to learn CSS, HTML, Java, JavaScript to make this website from scratch while being a first-year teacher in a global pandemic.
Making is NOT scrolling for hours through countless color palettes and typing in hex codes one-by-one.
Making is NOT believing that just because everyone else's Maker website has pictures that mine is inferior because it does not.
Making is NOT expecting myself to do these elaborate, wonderful hands-on Maker projects with half my students at home and half in-person.
Making is NOT deeming a Maker showcase less important because it was done via Zoom and not in Painter Hall.
Can Making be these things? Sure. Is there any problem if someone does make the choice to do these things? Nope. Am I any less of a Maker if I made the decision to not do these things? NOT. AT. ALL.
Making is what you make it. That is my philosophy.
