Takeaways from Architecture

This entry was inspired by an earlier conversation with Jing Ting during our typical Yishun Park Hawker Centre breakfast meet up :P We were talking about what we would have done differently back in uni if we did not have the constraints we had then and with the knowledge we had now. 

My immediate answer was that I would have done much more at the very start if I hadn't chosen architecture (archi) as my major initially - have a campus life, joined more extra curricular activities, planned my modules better, travelled more, picked up a third language etc. - be that typical undergrad. 

Yet, on second thought, I realized how the grind in that single semester eventually shaped my thinking today and brought about many positive qualities I have that I could have never gotten if I majored in economics from the start. I sum them up into three simple key takeaways: 

1. More grit - I'm going to make a super bias standpoint here: no major is as crazy as architecture (or design major for that matter lol). 
• For one, pulling off a few days of all-nighters were a norm and the hard work never translated to results. It's no one's fault, design (and even life) is subjective and you just can't please everyone. I learn to accept failures better and more quickly and move on.
• It also taught me that sometimes it's better to scrape an idea in entirety than waste your efforts trying to salvage it. Ideas should be tested but sometimes they just don't work and that's totally okay. 
• When work gets hard, I like to tell myself "nothing is harder than going through architecture (kudos to all my friends who completed the degree lol)"
2. Develop a visual mindset - as fluffy as it sound, this has become heavily ingrained in so many things I do.
• Work wise, I find it amazing how tiny tweaks on colours and text in an email or powerpoint presentation can affect the message you're sending across to your audience.
• Personal life wise, it helped me appreciate the idea of minimalism and organise my space better :)
3. A hobby - I guess I still love the major in some way but not enough to pursue it as a profession :P I like painting buildings and landscapes of places whenever I'm overseas. I find it really satisfying how I'm able to keep a tangible record of my works and see how far I've come since I first started. Here's some I did over the few weeks :)

Also a huge huge plus: I wouldn't have met my landlords if not for architecture and relate to them on such an intrinsic level hehe. 

I guess it's always easy to brush off our past in a way that we wish we could have done more or better. Yet at that very moment, it could very well be something that you had to do in order to become who you are today. At the end, for me, it's how you use these past experiences to make more informed decisions in the present, be it for better or for worse. I would very well choose the former. 

As with everyone, Jing Ting had her own "could haves", one of which was to go on student exchange twice, but if she did, she wouldn't have met this very awesome person - me! - HAHA ok I kid about the awesome part. Likewise, I wouldn't have met her :) 

Happy Sunday~