With my graduation from university fast approaching and the start of my career on the horizon, I have taken the opportunity to see how far I have come in the last four years. I remember being petrified by the responsibility of preserving irreplaceable artifacts in my early internships. One such artifact was a Civil War era letter written by Arthur J. Ravenel, a member of the Confederate elite in my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. The imposing bridge I crossed each day going to school bore his name. Quite unlike a sturdy bridge, the letter was in delicate condition: pest-eaten, torn along the creases, and burned by the elegant, iron-gaul-ink message inscribed on its surface. My hands trembled as I sat down at my desk in the conservation studio of the Charleston Library Society, about to put into practice what I had learned about tear mending with Japanese tissue. Now I balance the treatment of numerous items in the painting conservation studio of Winterthur Museum on a daily basis. Having overcome my initial apprehension in anticipation of a treatment, I have transformed my debilitating fear into a controlled caution and continual awareness of my surroundings. While I hope to carry this approach to conservation with me wherever the future takes me, I will never forget those who helped me along the way.

          The example set by the museum professionals and conservators I met early in my journey into art conservation were central to my decision to pursue a career as a paintings conservator. Thanks to their generosity and eagerness for me to contribute hands-on, I have acquired practical knowledge of preservation, developed my hand skills, gathered my confidence, and instilled the core values of conservation. But the most formative takeaway of my internships was the observation that my supervisors all shared one attribute, an attribute that I endeavor to emulate: passion for their work. I have obtained a clear vision of the ostensibly overworked but undeniably driven conservator that I want to be, a conservator who trembles with excitement rather than fear.