When I was a young kid there was no other place I would rather be than in my garage. My garage was not a place for parking cars, like other garages, but instead it was an overflowing storage area filled with boxes, broken appliances, books, tools, papers, and many other “treasures”.

I would spend hours a day rummaging through discarded boxes, looking for things to either take apart or to use in my latest series of “inventions”. I’m not exactly sure what I was trying to “invent” at any certain point of time, but I made my fair share of electromagnets and exploding rockets as a kid. I was always fascinated by the methodology of invention.

In my makeshift garage lab I spent countless hours taking apart discarded appliances for parts and I always tried to figure out how these things worked in the process. I’m not sure what my parents thought of all of this, but as long as I kept my hands off the working appliances in the house they let me do my thing. I sometimes would recruit my friends to help me in these endeavors, but for the most part it was just me and my garage. I loved the freedom I had to think on my own, and would not trade this time for anything in the world. It really had a prominent impact on the person I am today.

Well, as time went on; some of these activities got me into trouble. One of my friends burned down some trees next to his house with the homemade rockets and I got in trouble for selling small exploding capsules at school, but for the most part, the risk was worth the reward.

Unfortunately, as I went through school, I soon learned that creativity wasn’t fostered to the extent I would have liked. In many classes, teachers seemed to reward rote memorization instead of challenging us to think for ourselves. Luckily, this did not sway me from my interests in the sciences and math. In addition to finding these subjects fascinating, I already knew about Edison and other inventors, and knew in my own mind what is must be like to be a scientist.

Throughout the years, from grade school to high school, I always had the sanctuary of my garage to pursue my creative interests, whether it was creating makeshift devices, playing music, painting, or just thinking.

In college, I appreciated the fact that the creative process was highly recognized in science instruction as well as in art instruction. In science, creativity is essential to “discover” the fundamental principles of life, where in art this creativity is often used to “reflect” on the fundamental principles of life. I still paint in my spare time, but my passion, and most of my time is spent trying to better understand “how life works” at the molecular level.

I have since left the days of retreating into the solace of my garage, and now I pursue my questions and interests in a research lab. Sometimes when I’m sitting in front of my computer, or working at my lab bench, I think of the old days where I only dreamed of having a job like this.