Not Just a Dream

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

How would you answer this question?

"I want to be a doctor."

"I want to be an engineer!"

"I want to be a successful businessman."

Well, my answer would be "I want to be an architect."

But it was more than just that. Much, much more. I don't just want to be an architect. I need to be an architect. This profession is something I have always yearn to be.

I have learned that I want to be an architect since I was 8. It almost has been a decade for me to keep this dream alive. And it was really not easy, especially for the past couple of years, to do that.

When I was a third grader, my dad who worked in a printing company came home with an unused blocks notes. I forgot why, but I started filling the pages with sketches of floor plans. I had a very wide imagination since I was very young, so I like to imagine about what kind of house I want to have, then I would just pour my thoughts into the skecthes I made on those blocked papers. I also had this weird fetish about property show in tv (like Griya Unik).

This thing has eventually became a routine for me. When the notes were finally fully filled, I bought a mathematics blocked book and started to continue my drawing there. Till now, i think it has already been more than 15 books fully filled with my sketches. But unfortunately most of my early sketching books have already gone missing.

collecting property brochures

Back then, the kind of house I sketch is very, very random. I remember making a house of 5 stories, and putting a church on the top floor. I also like to put swimming pool as big as it got and also movie theatres, and many other unique rooms. But I feel like getting better and better as time passed by. I started to notice the scale, and make my door 80cm length (I used to make it 50cm long...). I got more and more creative with the interior designs. I collected a very large amount of property brochures and learned about houses in general. One of my great achievememt is when I succeeded to make a project on Sketch Up! They were just 2 small bedrooms, one is a girl bedroom and other is a boy bedroom. But for an elementary school student, managed to make rooms with a pretty detailed interior, having nobody to teach me how to do the program, I was very proud of my self.

one of my sketches i made in about early junior high

Going to junior high, I got a little busy with school. I didn't make house sketches as much as when I was in the elementary, but I still made time to do it. I was getting much better, I think. Then I was starting to think when I make my sketches. I have to erase most of them if I ended up making the bathroom above the kitchen. I started to think about the health of the family that would live inside the house. I got more critical towards my house sketches.

another sketch i made on junior high

The issue I have with this dream showed up for the first time when I entered high school. Things were getting pretty serious in high school. You just need to really think about what you want to be because the future is right in front of you. Therefore my parents came up with some suggestion what major I should take on college. I apparently spent my 10th year not wanting to be an architect but wanting to take the chemical engineering major. The major seemed like it had much better opportunity in the future. My dad was very supportive with my new dream. He was really glad I listened to his suggestion.

Thankfully, I got the chance to do some kind of short intern in an architect company, so I learned about what architect really did, and, well, once again  I fell in love with this profession.

the work i've done in my intern with the revit program

On the eleventh grade, physics which was my favorite subject were getting harder. I thought, I can't do physics all the time. I like physics but I don't want to do it 24/7, which I would if I became a chemical engineer.

my recent sketch

Apparently, the world started to telling me things I already knew, but I forgotten for a while. My friends keep telling me how I do well in perspective and projection art, and how I am very suitable as an architect. I also went to a talkshow in an edufair, with the speaker Mr Cosmas Gozali, a very great architect of Indonesia. Hearing what he had to say making me even more sure about my long lost dream. I also got to hear the alumni talking about her career as an architect, and I learned about the subjects I need to master to be an architect, and those subjects happen to be the subjects I was actually very good at.

The perspective drawing. I mentioned how my friends keep telling me I'm very good at this.

The 3 dimensional math. I once got a 100 at this test which I didn't get to study for because I had an OSIS duty the day before. My class needed to have a retest because of the bad results, but I. Got. 100. Sorry not sorry. HAHAHA.

Physics. I'm weirdly in love with this subject. Even when sometimes I didn't do too well, but most of the time I got a good mark.

Lately, I went to hear 2 of Cosmas Gozali's talkshows. Listening to his presentation, it's just like making everything clear for me, that architect, is what I'm gonna be.

Even he said that the first 10 years after you graduate, you'll have the hardest time of your life as an architect. Most of your friends will fail to be an architect, but manage to get higher payment than you. You'll work hard, but not going to get paid much. But IF I succeeded to went through the 10 first years, people will look for you, money will come to you, and that's when you'll be a real architect.

So it's a long way to go, but guess what? I am VERY excited to start this tough but amazing path. Mark my words: You'll be seeing me making the best buildings in Indonesia, 15 years from now.