1.14.2007

Purging Physical Things

My thing for this month is cleaning out my room. Not that it is dirty. I am doing the kind of cleaning the only precedes moving, which I figure I will be doing within the next six months. Last week I determined that I was finally satisfied that my things in the garage can stay in the garage. I don't need them now, and I will need them later. Stay in the garage they will do. Today I am looking through the many rolls of paper that are the evidence that I attended architecture school. Tons of plans, diagrams, sections elevations etc, and most of it I can get rid of.
Here is what struck me while re-examining all this stuff though. Almost every project left me feeling unfulfilled at the end. There are very few (if any) projects at school the I really felt I had completed at the end. Most of them had loose ends, and many had gaping holes that I wished to fill. That leaves me wondering, if I never felt I had enough time to finish. . . if I always wanted to do more, was I being held back? Was I getting too involved in details and missing the whole point of the exercises? I can't help wondering from time to time what education does for people. How many people feel they don't quite fit with the program of learning? How many people never get a chance because they don't believe in or understand the system? I have been lucky in that my only "issue" with "the system" is that it never seems to probe issues enough. That doesn't inhibit my ability to do work. It just leaves me unsatisfied.

1 comment:

  1. wow, well put. I've had so many similar thoughts. I think the reality is, education gets your brain moving in a certain context, and it is understood that your first few years in a career are meant to really shape what you need to know/use. This is good, but also scary because i think it leads to complacency. If you ever want to jump ship and do something different, you have to relearn a lot.

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