Southern Charmed Ambition

On Giving Up

Since this is my first post regarding school, I'll disclose that I'm currently a junior in an architecture program in North Carolina. Architecture in general is an extremely difficult major. It involves a lot of late nights, heartache, hard work, and is really considered a lifestyle. For some background information, I'm working on my Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, with the hopes of being accepted into the 5th year of our program so I can actually graduate with a Bachelor of Architecture (which is the professional degree). I do probably around 20-30 hours of work a week for studio alone, so needless to say this major is not for the lazy or faint of heart.

WITH THAT BEING SAID

We found out the other day that one of our fellow students in our year was deciding to withdraw. Now most people quietly leave because they either weren't cut out for the program or decided architecture wasn't for them. This young man decided to leave us a Facebook post about feeling behind and needing to focus on his other class (as in singular other class, but I won't get to mean about it. It really is none of my business what he decides to do). Now we all work very hard, but we were all confused because he never seemed to put effort into his work, but then tried to come across as a casualty to the difficulty of the program. But in the end he just gave up.

Personally, I've wanted to give up. Multiple times. Nothing will wear you mentally down like working on a project for hours on end, sacrificing sleep and social opportunities, to either not get good feedback or have a bad grade. I got to a point last year where I started to doubt myself and my abilities. But I didn't stop. Like everyone else in the program, I want my career to be in design. I want to love my career and love going to work every day, so I'm not going to settle for something else. What bothered most of us about our fellow student deciding to just give up and try again next year was that he was settling. He isn't in it. We all try to surround ourselves with people who are working hard and bettering their craft, and he came in half done. 

At the end of the day we respect his decisions, and we will never know what really influenced them. Like I said, it's a hard program and a lot of people quit. No one wants to waste their college years on something they don't love. 

What I'm getting at is that when you do love it, never let it go. Argue with that professor, read that suggested book, go to that study session. We're all capable of doing exactly what we want to do, and we shouldn't let little things stop us.