 So I was presenting my design work one time in a design jury. This was a long time ago. And out of that was one of the most stressful design reviews I've ever been in my life. But despite that stress, I learned some really important lessons from that, which I still remember today. So I was a third year architecture student studying in Rome in Italy, which for me was an amazing experience, completely different place, different culture, different language, different set of teachers than I was used to. So that was a challenge, but a great challenge for me to be in a foreign place as a young American student. So as part of this design project, we were given a letter to read. And the letter was about 2,000 years old. It was written describing a villa on the sea, where the author of the letter spent some time. So our project was to interpret that letter and to design the villa based on our interpretation. So the problem was, or my response to that was, I'll read this letter, but I'm going to interpret it in how I see it, how I read it, which is to reinterpret it in a modern way, in a way for our times. This was still the 20th century, but the end of the 20th century. Architecture, I believe, and maybe all design, should reflect the time and the place that when it's made, where it's made. This is how I see design, especially architectural design. Part of the problem, though, was why the jury and why even my classmates, to be honest, were so negative and so critical of my project was I think they had a different expectation. They expected, well, if the letter is 2,000 years old, then the building should be 2,000 years old. It should be something like interpreted literally as it reads. And I just had a different view of that, a different way of thinking about how to translate those words into some kind of built form. So during the review, I was standing there being really criticized, being attacked, sweating, as I presented the work. And finally, when that horrible experience ended, I went over, sat down, just trying to decompress and sort of relax a bit. And that's when something very important happened. The director of that architectural program, Gloria Sama, came to me and sat down and said, oh, Paul, that was a pretty tough review, right? And I said, yes, Gloria, that was really tough. And I'm still shaking, perhaps. And she said, you know what? Don't worry about it. You did fine. I know what you were trying to do. I saw it. You were bringing your vision, your personal interpretation into the project. And you did fine. Don't worry about it. So that was very important, what she said, because first of all, it made me feel better. And second of all, it taught me an important lesson about design and the role of individuality, perhaps, or of individual vision in design. And that's something very important for all designers, whether it's an architect, a graphic designer, a painter, a sculptor, a filmmaker, et cetera, et cetera, that that's the main thing you actually bring into design is your personality, your individuality, your skill, your talent, your background, your vision. And I kind of believe all good and something like relevant design is founded in that. Plus your technical skills, plus your education, plus all those other factors. But that individuality and personal vision is a great driver of good design. So the second important lesson I brought away from that was also from the same teacher from Gloria. And what I always appreciated about her even then as a student was that she treated us as equals, or as partners, as young architects and not dumb, inexperienced architecture students. And she would always say, architects come, we have a meeting now, or architects come, let's discuss this assignment. And I always felt very empowered by that, or I felt very, it gave me confidence that even though I'm inexperienced, I do have skill already, and I do have ideas that are worthy of being discussed. So that approach to teaching actually impacts me now even today. I still remember how that made me feel confident and made me feel good about my design. So I approach my students the same way. I treat them as partners, as collaborators in this kind of design process or in the educational process. And I always say, as graphic designers, what do you think about this? Not as, oh, as young students, what do you think about this? And I hope that the students feel that from me, the sense of respect for them, for actually the skills that they already have, and for their different vision, different approach to design than I have as an architect. And so out of something initially bad, this terrible, stressful design review came some excellent and important lessons for me that I still carry with me today.