Studio Culture

Although I don't have much time anymore, I'm pretty proud of my major...

Journal Assignment #1: “Studio Culture.”

I thought college life would be different. Actually I thought it would be different for me. Everyone around me is living the college life but I’m confined in the architecture studio almost every waking moment. It’s easy to get burnt out when you leave the studio at 6:45 am and have three hours of sleep and then a three hour class.

In studio there are two extremes. You have your peers who go to class and go home and on final day bring in something they spent no time at all on. Then you have your peers who are really dedicated to improving themselves and spend endless hours on projects and models. By endless I mean possibly forty hours on long projects (ones that last throughout the weekend) to twenty four hours on smaller ones.

We see the “college life” through windows high up on the second floor (which seems unreachable with models, laptop, and materials in hand while attempting to take the stairs,) or on our way to and from classes.

Classes, outside of studio and Architectural Design 1 (D1 for short) are seen as buffer. They are GPA raisers. The easy courses used to fulfill our general education requirement. We cannot care about other subjects. We don’t have time or the brain capacity. We don’t pick classes where reading is a requirement. Oh and writing is not even heard of. I made this mistake and well, I’m not too sure I want to experience Africa any longer.

You might see us around, us architecture kids. We’re really more than that… some of us are architects, but others of us are in allied fields such as Interior Design and landscape architecture. Some want to take over the world one building at a time, others want to restore the broken down, and others want to implement sustainability in everything they do.

You might see us grabbing a Starbucks double espresso, or in my case a frapp, with no time to sit and talk to our friends who at that time we just casually run into. Our meals are also to go. We have minor injuries and Band-Aids are a usual fashion accessory due to late nights with an Ulfa knife or Plexiglas cutter. We might be carrying our latest model. Please don’t touch it. It took us thirty three hours just to get that one piece of basswood to hold that Plexiglas at that exact height and if you touch it we risk our “craft” going down.

We’re either always tired or incredibly immune to exhaustion by now. We can go days without sleep and function quite nicely. Actually when you’re about to hit the sack from a long day of studying and reading all of those chapters, we’re brushing our teeth and getting ready for the midnight shipment of supplies and our pizza to arrive in the studio. We head off as if starting our work at midnight is all the norm and leave you in bewilderment.

Just an update inbetween stuff...

So I have here just a quick update before I head off to do scholastic things. Today was the last day of my Human Sexuality and Culture class. I really liked that class. It touched me on a bunch of different levels. It just covered soooo much. I loved it. So I was a little sad to leave today.


I have finals tomorrow. My last exam for Human Sex and an actual final for math. I'm scared about math. Really scared. I really want a B in that class. Right now I have a C+... and I've been studying. I'm going to meet with my professor during her office hours to talk about it.

Lately I've been reading my bible on a daily basis. Its good stuff. I started reading Luke, and I'm just trying to see Jesus' life through reading it...and trying to apply his attitude in the things I do. Pretty amazing guy.


So like tomorrow, I have to pack. I started packing my clothes up and that's easy but I have to clean out my refrigerator and somehow have someone watch it get picked up because I'll be taking my final at that time. It's a rental and the company picks it up at the end of the summer and will be dropping it off when I arrive for fall.


This weekend I'm going to Islands of Adventure. I'll be facing my fear of roller coasters for the 387947928347289273894234872937th time. My cousin tries to get me to go on more and more each time. Hopefully I won't be forced into going on the Shikra. My stomach's churning just thinking about it!

This is the Hulk which I've been on numerous times. Did I mention my eyes are closed and i'm screaming the entire time?? I've never once opened them!

On to reading the bible. I'll reflect on the college life or something else later on!

Oxymoron! Me?

So lately I've been feeling so... misunderstood, confused, and other things I can't verbalize. Basically at times I can be fun and amazing and goofy and hilarious. It's usually candid and not in huge groups. Then at times when I'm expected to speak and be full of life, ie the question "what makes you unique?" or "what's something interesting about you?" I tense up. I get butterflies, I want to throw up, I get sweaty palms and short of breath. My heart even beats a million times faster and its hard to swallow. For some reason I love to talk to friends, joke around, meet new people... but then if I go somewhere where that's the point I FREEZE! I came to the conclusion that I'm just a big old oxymoron.



I come across as bored, rude, boring, and ungrateful... when really I'm shy and anxious and really hate being put on the spot. I like to talk about myself but yet I don't. I love God but yet I can't vocalize it at times. It makes me think about all of the things in life that go unsaid and it makes me sad a little bit. Someone out there that thinks they know me may not at all. People are multifaceted and maybe just because they don't want to vocalize what motivates them to a group of strangers even though deep inside their mind they are thinking about the two younger cousins who they want to lead the way for and be an example of a successful person who started off just like them who made it, but is simply shy. I'm grateful. I'm grateful that God has speared my life and blessed me in so many ways. But at that moment when asked to volunteer to voice it, I panicked.



Am I struggling with my own personality traits and should I overcome my shyness or is it just an innate part of me that God put for a reason? Or because I have Christ in my life should I over come it for the sake of him? Am I like Moses? I'm so confused.

SOMEONE, ANYONE, REPLY WITH A BIBLE VERSE PLEASE.

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all who's who and so-n-so's that used to be the best
At such'n'such ... it wouldn't matter much

I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an 'Atta boy' or 'Atta girl'
But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

I don't have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy
It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy

Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, "Well Done" good and faithful one...

My first week.

So this time last week I was sighing for relief as my family left me in my dorm for the first time. And now I'm sighing for relief that my math homework is finally done. Phew! So now I finally know what college life is like... a lot of scheduling and time management. So far I'm doing well. Not homesick at all. I thought that hearing the voices of my grandmother and baby cousins on the phone would bring me to tears but it hasn't. And I'm glad. I have no time scheduled in for sadness. So far most of my activities have been things hosted by black fraternities in partnership with the AIM and PAACT program at school. Things like cookouts, tours, pool parties, clubs, and talent shows. My schedule has been filled with multiples of each. Last night I went to Flavet field and watched the fireworks... and even got a picture with Clifford the BIG I repeat BIG red dog... that I am clearly bigger than.


Clifford turned out to be an almost 15 year old boy. lol. If you look closely you can see his head on the right.


Although I'm never there, I love my dorm room. I'm very relaxed when I'm there.

I'm glad I'm seeing the truth about college and what things are myths and what not. Time management is key, there's really no need for a television unless you're sick, 2 meals a day are standard, and there's no reason to be bored or not meet someone. I think I meet 3423432432 new people everyday! More later in about another week!

Today is the day!

Today is the last day I'm ever going to have to clean the bathroom that everyone else messes up! I'm so happy. After today there will be no more of this...



Don't get me wrong... I like a clean place... I just don't like cleaning up after people that are able to clean up after themselves.

HELLO dorm life!

Hallelujah!

So I'm proud to announce that I have completed a right of passage in every teenagers life... I passed my Driving test and now I have my license!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



So I saw the movie Haven the other day and I loved it. I don't know... for some reason I love messed up movies...that leave you like "DANG." Movies like... Crash and Alpha Dog... sometimes they can be vulgar but they leave me with a deep emotion for the people in the movie that sometimes its sad to say I don't get in real life. Maybe its because after spending an hour and half to two hours delving deep into the lives of these people... you get the feeling that you know them in an intimate way. With real people that takes forever.




I leave in 10 days to Gainesville.. I will be celebrating with close friends tonight at the mall for a movie and pizza, yum. Maybe I'll even shop at aeropostale... THE TIME IS NOW! I think I'll be blogging a lot more when school starts.... hopefully things will get more exciting.

Prom pics/ Worship,

Here are some pictures from Prom which was April 27th.... In the top Left I look like I'm getting ready for a ho down. Top Right: Odalys and I. Bottom Left: Rebeca, Maria, and I.










So church last night was famazing! Yes... Famazing... that is Fantastic and Amazing! Worship was amazing, youth group was fantastic... I was grinning from ear to ear. You ever just feel like everything is just going right? Yea that's how it was. During worship we prayed and I felt really bad about the way I treated this one friend this week. I pretty much know how to slyly be rude and mean and make it seem nonchalant and natural. I also realized that I need to work on forgiveness. I mean God forgave me right? Why is it so hard for me to forgive. I always have to have something up against someone. Hopefully God helps me get rid of that issue. I really want to be better.

Why is it that our worship team sounds way better than the original singers of songs that we sing in church? Make sense? Well they're just that good. Famazing!

In Youth group we talked about the end times and different aspects and theories about the rapture. Such as if we're going to be called up before the Antichrist comes, in the middle, or afterward. I hope its before. But I'm just sayin... lol. I have no say... and what would the world be like if I did? CHAOS!

So I was supposed to go out to dinner or a movie on Friday but that's caput. Whatev. Saturday I might do a movie day with my college friends who are broke. Sunday I'm going to church and then later on giving my mom presents and then going to a Shirley Caesar concert. Monday I head out to Gainesville till Wednesday. Then wednesday I go to Tampa for the night and head back to MIA on Thursday, hopefully in time to pick up my cap and gown at school. Somewhere during that time I have to study for my AP human geography test because I really want to pass it!