Architecture is hard

Your creativity, work ethic and time-management is constantly challenged with every new project and most of the time you have a minimum of 5 tasks to do at any one time. This mental assault course has drained my motivation at times but to the people who make it past this first year and met those dead-lines (thankfully including myself) you’re a better person for it.

Surround yourself with like-minded people

Whether it was a brief conversation to distract ourselves from work or a laugh at what we’d been getting up to outside of the studio my friends have got me through the past year with my sanity in tact.

Help yourself

It’s easy once you’ve hit your deadline to go home and not think any further about architecture and unwind. Whilst it’s healthy to have a balanced life helping yourself improve doesn’t have to be hard. This year I discovered ‘Audible‘ a godsend of an app from amazon that lets you download 1 free book a month. I have currently downloaded ‘Architecture of Happiness‘ since I borrowed the volume from our University library but could never find time to read it. I now listen to a book on audible whenever I’m driving somewhere, preparing food or need to relax before bed. TED talks are also useful but because you need to watch the screen I find them more time-consuming.

Be Passionate 

My first history class of the year my lecturer spoke for thirty minutes about how architecture wasn’t for everyone and if you were having doubts to quit. Lo and behold by the same time the following week some people had already dropped out. Because an Architectural degree is the same length as studying to be a doctor it would be a waste of your life if you don’t enjoy it. Do what makes you happy not what you think you should be doing.

I’ve always be someone who loves to be challenged, competition brings out my determination to do well. This first year has definitely had challenging moments, I’ve tried new drawing, painting, presentation and computer techniques not all of them working out but when they do; you grow as a person. Personal growth and the growth of society is the backbone of architecture.