On one of the best gifts I was ever given

My Senior year of high school I was editor of the school paper, and making straight A's in everything from AP Calculus to my fourth year of French. So my generous father allowed me to enroll in one "easy" class. I chose Clothing Design. It was in that easy class that I learned the basics of threading a bobbin, sewing a straight seam, and following a pattern. I loved it and actually wore the things I made. For my 18th birthday, my parents bought me my very own sewing machine and a gift card to buy some fabric and a pattern. Although I hate to admit it, that was over 13 years ago. And I am still using the same machine (I don't think they paid more than $100 for it). With that machine I have dressed my windows and my children. I have turned Leaves and Bugs into a dinosaur and a butterfly and a princess and even Luke and Leia Skywalker. I've made Christmas gifts and covered pillows and I even made my dog a Miami Dolphins hoodie. I've turned sketches and ideas into real-life, tangible objects. What my parents gave me was a tool to create. They didn't give me something that would be used up, but something that would be used to make new things: a perpetual making machine.