“It is going to be a fun and strenuous ride!” are usually the words that echo on your first day of college. The latter part usually dominates your college life, but eventually, you fall in love with it. Strangely, exam days become the most awaited days after all the sleepless nights and the routine hunger strikes. As we stride our way through all this, we do enjoy every minute of our college life. When I turn around and look into the past three years of my architecture student life, I laugh to myself thinking about the humorous experiences I have had. I am sure most of you would have encountered the same.
Back to Pre-school
As toddlers and as architecture students, we go through the arduous task of writing alphabets. Well, it was not easy then and sure is not easy now. Back then, we could get away with a smile while we get lashed out now as teenagers. Yet, chatting with my friends and sipping coffee, the memory of my first sheet getting ripped and thrown into the bin a mile away cracks everyone up. Being able to draw a straight line and get your letters right is just the beginning of the humorous chapter. I cannot recall the number of sheets that followed the first one into the bin.
Studio/bedroom
After all the exhausting work and sleepless nights, you are ready to sleep anywhere and at any time. Be it a scruffy studio or a spotless one. You were on the floor sleeping tight with your bag as your pillow like me. In my opinion, architects are the most modest people on earth. We do not need a soft pillow, a comfortable bed, a cozy blanket, or a luxurious suite. A small space between the drafting tables on the rough floor surrounded by pencil scrap and old models is the perfect nest. The studio without a professor becomes our bedroom.
Control less Ctrl+S
The worst part of using software is not knowing when your software will crash but imagining it in a hundred unique ways. We would be scared about it the whole time and still forget to hit ctrl+S. The dope part is I have committed this crime 100 times and do it the 101st time anyway. For every review, there is at least one friend who uses this excuse and eludes it. Although it was a pulsating headache back then, it is a humorous story for our chitter-chatter.
Side Effects of Caffeine
I am sure every architecture student has tasted Redbull at least once in their lifetime. “Why not take a coffee break?” is the standard punchline we receive from all our non-architecture friends that infuriate us. With numerous presentations and daily assignments lined up for the week, coffee is like a nip for an alcoholic. We need cans and cans of caffeine to finish all work on time. Like the two sides of a coin, our sleep schedule also gets scrambled up for having too much caffeine the previous night. While still struggling to get a grab on everything, the terrifying bawl from the kitchen ensures our caffeine intake is under control.
Free Designs
The hilarious chapter of an architect’s life is when you get into an architecture college, and all your kith and kin ask you the same question. They nag for you for free designs, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. The funniest part of this is that they often confuse you with a civil engineer. Trying to make them understand the difference is more tedious than designing a house. Even though I’ve experienced this many times, it gets funnier every time.
T-Scale
I’m not sure if all of you would be able to relate to this, but I’ve had a humorous experience with my t-scale during my first semester. Figuring out how to hold the t-scale was my first task, even before finding out how to use it. Carrying the t-scale on the first day of college is equal to playing chess. Carefully holding the t-scale along with your bag, chart holder, and the phone plugged with earphones playing your favorite song that makes your morning is like three-dimensional chess. In case you are doing all this and choose a mode of public transport to college, I hope God is with you. Although we have our struggles in the beginning, later it becomes the sword of the chivalrous knight.
Architecture is the most enjoyable course, in my opinion. However back-breaking it might be, the fun part makes it gripping. One fine day, sipping coffee and staring into the sky and thinking about the merry time you had in college, you are going to fall hard laughing. I’ll miss walking around college carrying a hundred things on my shoulders. Although things might be taking a hit at times, once you pull up your sock and show what is under your sleeve, everything is going to fall in place, creating a wonderful experience.
