Schools
Not Your Average Mom: Michelle Romano
Kylie Romano wrote one of the five top features for a new eighth grade English and social studies project at the Joyce Middle School.
When some people picture a stay-at-home mom, they picture a middle-aged woman cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the house, doing laundry, or running errands. However, when Michelle Romano's five kids think of her, they picture wood, power tools, table saws, and things being built, from bookshelves to forts.
Michelle graduated from Arizona State University with a major in architecture. Originally, she wanted to major in art education, to become an art teacher, because she loved art. She took two years of it at Brigham Young University and didn't like it at all. "It was too abstract,” she says.“I like more realistic art.”
It was her dad who recommended architecture. He knew she was very good at math and art, and in architecture she could utilize these skills. "I wasn't very confident in myself,” says Michelle. "I thought of architects as geniuses," but she gave it a chance.
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She took a drafting course at BYU (while still in art education) and loved it. Unfortunately, BYU didn't offer architecture as a major, so she would have had to switch schools. Since she worked part-time as a secretary for BYU's planning department (the architects of BYU, who actually worked on building and remodeling it), she was able to ask about different schools that offered architecture as a major. After thinking about different suggestions, she sent an application to ASU. She got in, so she and her newly-wed husband moved down to Arizona, where he found a job. They lived in a duplex they built with another family.
While she studied at ASU, her husband worked full-time and she worked part-time. They also had their first child, Hunter, there.
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In ASU the architecture classes were narrowed down to about 25 students. Michelle explained that because of the small class size, everyone became very close and were "like family."
Her first internship was at the Orcutt/Winslow architecture firm in Arizona. She was very lucky because the company paid their interns, which wasn't required. She was also lucky because she actually got to work on the projects, whereas in some internships, you are just assigned to do the boring little jobs or "toilet details," as the interns called them.
Michelle "shadowed" a woman named Katy from the firm. Her first project was Bogul Jr. High. They went to meetings, drew out blueprints and visited the site because sometimes what worked out on paper didn't work out in real life. "Site days were my favorite," says Michelle. After getting her major she got a job at the firm she interned at where she worked on designing a medical facility and elderly home. She loved all of it.
A few years after receiving her architecture degree, Michelle's husband Matt got a job in Boston and they moved to Woburn. Michelle stopped working so that she could raise a family. It was very hard for her to give up her career. "It felt like a part of me had been ripped away. I felt talented and was praised often." Being a mother is exhausting, and there's not often praise.
However, she says she wouldn't trade being a mom for anything, and will never regret it. In the long run, it's worth the sacrifice, plus, she's been able to teach some of the skills she learned in college to her children. She has five kids: 16-year-old Hunter, 13-year-old Kylie, 12-year-old Jade, 9-year-old Sage, and 8-year-old Scott. She loves being a mom, even if she had to sacrifice her career. She says "Now instead of building buildings, I'm building future adults and families."
After quitting her job, Michelle took up woodworking. She thinks it's important for every mom to have a creative outlet, and that's what woodworking is for her. This way, she can still, in a way, practice her architecture skills. Plus, now when she draws a blueprint, she understands what each line is: a piece of wood, wiring, pipes, etc.
She took a furniture-building class in college, which helped her. The first thing she built was a rocking chair, because she wanted to have one with her first baby. She's also built a TV stand, bookshelves, birdhouses, forts, sandboxes, a skate ramp, a table, a bench, and other things for people. She still loves to build things and work on woodworking projects.
Maybe one day, Michelle will return to architecture, but for now, family is what's most important.
