If you ask what’s funny to an architecture student, the complete 5 years of their college seems like a stand-up set with lazy writing but as the nature of our education evolved with the pandemic, so did the stories.
For a class that starts at 8:30, a typical student wakes up 5 minutes before, just to hit snooze, because ‘network issues’ will always accompany your ‘present ma’am’ when you’re 20 minutes late to the class. Even the looming terror of a lethal disease can’t make us take bath in the morning. With sleepy eyes and still drooling mouth, we comb our hair thinking this will make us presentable for that dreaded 5 seconds when we have to switch on our cameras for attendance. Somewhere stuck between doing the assignment or the dishes, a clueless student never actually eats during lunch break as they persistently snack during the structures lesson. An architecture student has now more than ever before learned to multi-task, advantages of multiple tabs include ‘Netflix and chill’ on one and our ‘not-so-chilled teachers’ on another. We constantly switch between Money heist’s Professor and our professor.
Things that still remain invariable for us is that students still rely on Pinterest for their designs and that the only load structures invoked is under our eye bags. Architecture lies before; you just need sketching skills and mathematics to do architecture. Architecture lies now; yes we understand everything from our online lectures. But this doesn’t hold back our teachers; they still work meticulously to teach us those engineering concepts that never really existed in our syllabus, to begin with, because even they seem to know that our civil engineering buddies are bunking their classes. The hard to decipher virtual medium lacks those creative outbursts which were routine with all the hands-on experience-based teaching, however, it still manages to incorporate just as many if not more hours of tireless work. What seemed like a drug in an architecture institution; Glass trace and pencil sharpeners earned their reputation as their use is illegal. Talking of illegal, With zoom and Google meet, the stationary which actually cost us more than our college fees are now safe from all ominous predators but we don’t necessarily need them now, all thanks to illicit pirated softwares that comes in real handy. Finally, those extravagant Laptops with RTX Gfx Cards which were supposedly bought for using Drafting and Modelling Software are now used more for hefty games and HD movies.
After spending an entire day focusing on our classes, with Instagram on one hand and a broom in the other, and after countless naps, it is after 10 pm the class Whatsapp group transitions from a silly meme sharing platform to a design discussion platform. The dry texts from classmates asking about attendance have now escalated into conference calls with everyone from class talking about how taxing and strenuous online classes can get. After dropping multiple plans to bunk classes indefinitely you then incidentally go and get a look at the topper kid’s presentation and without devoting any thoughts at all to anything else whatsoever you get up from your seat, you grab a coffee and you get to work with motivation to spare because of competition. Now with Coffee in your bloodstream, you begin a nice efficient segment of 37 minutes worth of uninterrupted work when you notice a notification on your phone and happen to click on it. The loop has now been reconnected and thus begins the cycle of endless scrolling, of anxiety about due assignments and also of scrolling while being anxious about due assignments. It is now 3 AM. You think about giving up. That’s when you go into the self-evaluation and start thinking about your career choices and then your Topper friend comes to mind again and you’re dreading how he’ll show up tomorrow with a sketchy concept, 3 plans, 6 sections, pragmatic renders, maybe an on-scale actual model and possibly sipping champagne through the process. All when you’re still struggling to find the North.
The deadlines sure do seem like a miraculous phenomenon, they push you to work even when you’re void of will or ideas. As the world rises for another day, you just wait for the next peaceful second when you can sleep but before that, there is a jury to give.
It doesn’t make much difference if your juror is miles away; the fear still numbs your heartbeat. With almost half of the time being spent on chanting the mandatory online class mantra; am I audible the other half fritters on the next big question; is the screen visible? Such class presentations usually consist of the spirit-less design presentations accompanied by embarrassing wallpaper disclosure and background chaos. I’ve spotted numerous parents and siblings of my friends in thwarting conditions behind them; it now feels like we’re all family. After such presentations with unpredictable outcomes, just like our fluctuating signals and unstable WiFi, it is nap time, the 12-hour sleep to compensate for an all-nights work which could’ve been completed earlier but…procrastination.
Even for a student who is working tirelessly and dedicatedly, the sense of achievement is never fulfilled. For the bygone era, with scarce resources, education was a blessing. But for this generation, it is the abundance of resources that drag you away from feelings of accomplishment. With all the time in our hand, and all the PDFs and online lectures available in the varying field, we can never cross the finish line as there isn’t one. The time always seems to fly but the clock remains still; there is always so much you could do with your time. The eternal wish to completion is forcing not just architecture students but all learners to work 24*7 like lifeless zombies and still work for a non-existent deadline. Fortunately, architecture students are already used to being the living dead. My dad expects me to bring a paycheck after my degree, but the naïve man doesn’t understand how you can earn for a living if you’re dead inside.
