4-1/2 years ago my life changed forever.
I always knew there would come a time when I’d have to write it all down, put out a big fancy book, and rid myself of the memories taking up so much space in my head. Until that day comes, I hope to use this blog to begin the off-loading process.
In many regards, I’m about 4 years too late on starting. Everyone around me at the time was telling me to start a blog, and to take copious notes, which I sort of did…in margins of notebooks, and with emails, and on the back of meeting agendas, but the story has remained relatively private. Looking back, I think it was probably for the best that I didn’t start sooner. There were many situations which left me cynical, angry, and bitter and I think it’s probably for the best that I had time to reflect on the way events played out before running my mouth off on a blog. The ever-present specter of my professional life and support for the project kept me firmly in check outside of private company. It wouldn’t have reflected well on my position and we certainly would have lost a lot of support if I’d told the agencies where they could stick their ideas during every meeting. I resisted the urges that come with being 26, I never updated my Twitter or Facebook, never got an Instagram account, and I tried to make every interview I sat for sound like everything was all kittens and rainbows.
While it might sound like this blog (and future book) will be an expose on the horrors and drama of what it’s like to build a national war memorial in Washington, DC, I want to say that it will still always be remembered as one of the best and most humbling experiences of my life. Further, and I think this is important to say, I don’t have any negative feelings towards anyone who was involved in this process. Maybe at the time I harbored resentment or feelings of ill-will, but again, that’s why I’m glad I didn’t try to write anything down during those periods. It’s only been through time and reflection that I’ve been able to see that the people involved were acting either in their best interests, in what they considered to be my best interests, or in what they considered to be the best interests of the project, and I can’t fault them for our differences of opinion. No matter how much I wanted to punch them in the face at the time.
I sincerely hope that anyone who reads this will enjoy my stories and gain a greater sense of tumultuous hell we all went through to get the WWI Memorial designed and approved. I hold every member of the design team, WWI Commission, and our great support staff of admin and volunteers in the highest regard, and I hope the readers of this blog find them to be as committed to their principles and their country as one could expect.
Enjoy,
-Joe
