How Does That Start?
Being the student who is just an average throughout the school doesn’t have many options when they have to make their career path after high school graduation. With the family full of engineers & teachers the stereotype doesn’t even let you see how many different pearls are there waiting to be picked in the ocean full of wonders & opportunities. One has to fulfill his desires, yet convince the peers that I am doing something considered good in society. Hence, an adolescent who thinks he has the creative mind, ability to build something, with a hand full of not so useful advice and self-motivation, jumped in the pool of architecture full of surprises.
Foundation years
The first day after the anecdotes of the mysterious world ahead. An excited soldier starts the march. who just purchased his sword which has up and down motion and if you could handle it well can draw parallel lines. A gun named ‘set-square’ made of plastic may not be able to kill someone but can draft lines on any angle, the set of all new bullets to bleed the paper with graphite in light to dark shades. And yes a bunch of erasers. That is an old friend who never shows up after enjoying the first few days in your arsenal.
The well-equipped recruit goes to the class and gets himself ready for the task. And here comes the bust of a balloon taking all the air of excitement of starting a new thing.
You start your day the same as you started doing when you were learning to hold a pencil in kindergarten. With the same kind of pencil, you finish your day doing the same. The guy who came with the artilleries to bombard the world with his iconic imagination leaves the studio with sheets full of alphabets on the very first day.
Senior Years
After the thick and thin you learn and evolve, you find the ways to finish the tasks, Concrete is cured and your foundations are shear proof, ready to take the load. Now it is time to start building the skyscrapers on it. Higher-level studios of the journey. The dark clouds are gone and all the ambiguous, horrific and mysterious time is over. Now you are the sailor of the known sea.
You make your own identity in society. Night owls with Longhairs, full-fledged beards, always stressed, depressed, a hippie with filthy clothes. But that is the uniqueness. People know you for that and yes architecture students never leave a chance to brag. Brag about their lifestyle, always different from the rest. Different classrooms, unlike others, not a formal place where you sit and pay full attention but a Jungle full of monkeys loitering hither thither and exploring their genius minds. Not just an ordinary classroom but a second home where a single desk is your workplace and a dining table, a storage unit, an art gallery, a comfy bed and sometimes an only companion too.
Brick by brick you learn new things, new experiences, new explorations The journey teaches you lessons of life. You start enjoying and learn every trick in a book. You know how to finish your task with ease. Now you are okay with sleepless nights and improper diet. There are new things to learn every day. Sometimes your effort pays, sometimes you shine by fluke. You become unpaid laborers for the seniors. You get lots of redos just because your faculties were not in a good mood. Somehow you survive, years pass by and with every Jury, exam, Workshop and competition there is a new layer of masonry added in the wall of your skills and abilities.
The Office Training
After casting the columns & beams in the stories of every academic year here comes the trailer of the movie whose lead actor is you. The glimpse of the future of what you are going to be. In the life of an architect, the practical training semester is like hitting puberty. As the growing mighty little man, you go out to the field like you know everything. Full of energy, enthusiasm and inert fillings to do something. With the thought in mind” Yes…. I have studied very well and I am ready to conquer the world.”
But wait… Here comes another jerk of an earthquake to test the strength of your structure system that you have built during your college life. The strong seismic waves of professionalism come and teach you everything that was never there in the books.
A mason who can barely understand the methods written in books teaches you how to pull the perfect brick masonry wall. A carpenter who never went to school teaches you how you make accurate wooden joinery which you can only draft in sheets. An experienced draftsperson helps you understand the value of every line you put on the paper without even thinking. An arrogant client makes you understand that a complete redo on your efforts is no excuse until you deliver something fruitful.
The rigorous training you get throughout the journey up-lifts and makes you an architect from an ordinary human being. There is a spectacle in your eyes which gives you a new perspective to see the world differently.
To conclude, it is the journey to be an architect where you may perform well or maybe not. Might not pass with flying colors but you learn things. Things that help you understand how this world works. Things you wish you knew from day one of your adulthood. Ability to work under immense pressure. You learn to solve problems. Things that make you a well-trained survivor, can make you find a way to be successful and bring the best in yourself.
