A priority with our 2018 redesign was adding a stronger sense of voice, which inspired us to reintroduce My Thoughts Exactly, the first-person essay we eliminated many years ago. We think the strongest of these was "A Place to Work Things Out," a bittersweet reflection by alumnus Joe Warminsky on legacy and love between fathers and sons. Joe writes honestly and without sentiment about his relationship with his own aloof, tough-guy dad, and about how a sense of place—particularly the old garage in his childhood home, where he learned so much from and about his father—defines his memories of that relationship. Now a urban-dwelling father himself, he wonders how differences of time and place will influence his connection with his own son.
From the Judges
In just a few hundred words, Joe Warminsky colors a beautiful picture of the seemingly innocuous moments that fathers and sons share that perfectly capture their relationship. In the end, we learn that garages are nice and useful, but you don't really need them to store the most important stuff. A terrific read.
