Dear Reader,
I sat down with future staff member Sam Brooks to talk about his new responsibility of managing the M5 machine shop.
Alex Reineke
You're taking over the machine shop, right? How are you feeling about this?
Sam Brooks
The machine shop’s gonna take a lot of effort… but I'm excited to start. I can't wait… I want to basically remove everything from it and start from scratch. … When I moved in downstairs, I had to completely gut the entire one half of the basement… I had to remove wood in the walls… move multiple couches… remove a huge bunch of storage shelves… and move in even more furniture. … That’s what my process is: clearing a place out entirely, then starting from scratch. But I can do it in a way where I don't have to move everything out… I just need a single space that's cleared… then I move from that point. … The machine shop’s messy in a way where people make it messy… tools left out, supplies left out. … The supplies, like the metal and wood, have no real easy way to store them… If you want a bin that’s mixed‑place wood, then you need a big enough bin. … I feel like the main problem is just the way things are stored. … The tools have sections, but they're all just tossed in there… I want to do outlines for the drawers too… if everything has a place… everyone should be able to put it back properly.
AR
Wow. So you know what you're doing. I have a lot of experience with cleaning and organizing, which is cool. Where does that come from?
SB
…In the summer of sophomore year high school, I started working with my aunt. I did landscaping… then housework. They needed a patio built — I built them a patio. They needed the garage redone — I emptied out the entire garage… I redid the basement… the upstairs… carried a bunch of furniture. Organizing is just a random passion I have… it's fun for me. … I also realized I had a passion for this when I worked in the machine shop in high school… reorganizing every bolt size, screw size, every tool. … The teacher wanted exact measurements… I had to convert millimeters to inches… I added both. … I sorted through every hex bolt… measuring each one… putting them into drawers. … I redid the tool wall… ordered everything from most dangerous to least dangerous. … It stayed pretty organized… but eventually people needed so many tools that the system loosened… Every day I had to clean it up. So I'm used to always cleaning a space up, especially a machine shop area.
AR
That's really cool. So it started from high school… do you think that your need to organize developed then? Or did you have it before?
SB
I've always loved designing spaces. … Something in my childhood that goes a bit deep is I've never had a home. I've always moved around… Marlboro… Wayland… Acton… never really had a space I could call home. … My sister constantly wanted to switch rooms… I only had maybe a year at a time in one room. … When high school came around, that hole — wanting a space of my own — started. … We moved immediately… then 10th grade I moved rooms again… 11th grade I moved everything out… then to my dad’s… then back. … Finally senior year I had one year where I didn’t have to move anything. I decorated my room… foam panels… lights… reorganized everything… made a reading corner. But then school ended and my mom said we were moving again. … We moved to Boston… ceilings were so low I hit my head everywhere… I tried decorating but realized I couldn’t live there. … So I decided I was going to live on my own. … My aunt bought me furniture… I used old computer parts… and I finally had a space where I spent two years organizing, cleaning, perfecting it. … Now there are cats, so it's difficult, but still. …
AR
And so you feel that your aunt's house is that destination.
SB
She gave me a lot of freedom… I could do basically anything with the room. … There’s a mural on the wall… I took out lights… put in LED bulbs… fully gutted the room. … I put foam panels on the brick wall… art on the white wall… carpets on the rest. … It took me a full year to get it fully done… another year decorating… now I have a pool table, hockey table, ping pong table, giant bean bag, arcade machine… all confined into a space twice the size of the electronic lab… and three cats.
AR
Wow. How does it feel to be done?
SB
It feels like a relief… I never feel done, though, because there's always more to add… especially with pets. One of my pets has a dietary problem… leaves stains… litter everywhere… food spills. … It's never fully done because of them. But I've learned to live with it… like I learned to live with the machine shop. … Before, everything had to be perfect… I’d clean nonstop before and after guests. But now I'm actually enjoying myself… I clean later. … I have a minimal list each weekend… patch holes… fix stains… deal with the ceiling carpet the cats climb into. … I've learned certain things I need to clean, certain things I don't. … Without that adjustment, I don't think I’d ever be satisfied. … If I were in a machine shop two years ago, I wouldn’t be able to handle this… but now I know I can handle a little disorderly and just fix it again.
AR
So the key… is finding solace with the fact that it's not going to be perfect.
SB
Yes, exactly. There's no way to fully have a space be perfect if you're not the only one in it. … Anything that can move without your control can mess it up. … If I lived alone… it would be spotless 24/7. But since everyone needs to be in the machine shop… it constantly needs refurbishing. … But there are ways to make that easier: organization systems… a clean space from the start… making putting things back easier. … My old room — the cats ripped curtains, peed on them… I had to patch everything. … Now I have a system… clips, staples… always small patches to make. … I've learned to live with it because I can always buy more sheets… what I can't do is complain and want the whole thing restarted. … Same with the machine shop: no point fully cleaning it every single time. Clean it once, get it fully done, then just put things back as people misplace them.
AR
Yes, well, that's perfect. It sounds like you have a lot of plans.
SB
I do!
AR
Okay, so you have two years… That's not a lot of time, but I think you have it. I think you can!
SB
I set my mind to it. I can do it.
AR
I think you got it. Thank you so much for talking!
