fulcrum

If the recent weather conditions could be summarily taken as a portent, the upcoming start of my reviews this week would be nothing less than challenging. I wish I could brush off this foreboding sense of dismay and curdling anxiety, but the fact remains that the review center I opted to enrol in is located at an area renowned for incessant flooding and the persistent presence of criminal activity. Despite the fact that it is in close proximity to one of the most prestigious universities in the country; which I surmise is also a factor why pickpockets, hold-uppers and various sorts of malevolent intent plague the locale, it is also quite remote from where I hold office.

The journey to the review center on days that I would be attending the classes will be nothing short of a test of my conviction to both pass the licensure examination, and dreamily aiming to even place in the results. I may not have been an exemplary student during my undergraduate years (and protracted and extended years they have been), but I firmly believe that the architecture board exams have such pregnant promise of validating, vindicating and affirming myself that I am both a competent designer, and the path I chose to become an architect has not been defeated.

To be honest, i have conflicting emotions about the whole situation. Anxiety mixed with excitement and a pervading sense of aspiration permeates my daydreaming hours. Although arguably architecture is a difficult industry to become financially successful in our country, at least with a license under my belt I can fervently pursue my hope of becoming an established and singular architect, one whose perspective on design and the built environment could provide an alternative, albeit progressive, methodology on how Filipinos view architecture and spatial design.

Of course, the intent is not to belittle those that have come before me. I stand upon the shoulders of giants, and my predecessors have been nothing less than inspirational that quality design can and does come from even the humblest of beginnings. It may have taken longer than the usual for me to finally decide to take the board exams, but as they say – better late than never. There is acquiescence between my friends that being licensed is a necessary burden for one to practice architecture, but beyond the validation that it offers, it is also an opportunity for me to embrace once more the structured and comforting roteness of a student’s life. This will be concomitantly shared with the hours that I spend engaged as a semi-senior design architect in the firm I currently work for. I have high hopes that if I do get my license, that better career opportunities will manifest. But that, altogether, is a separate entry.

So bring it on Helen. Let your hard tempestuous rain pour upon this urban abattoir, so that it may cleanse the path I shall be trudging towards my classes. Both in good and bad weather will my commitment be tested triumphant against the odds, notwithstanding my plethora of responsibilities at work. May the heavens be more forgiving, and fate more cooperative. And, may the Gods be ever in my favor.

Original image from here.