Sep 3, 2013

29th existential check

Tomorrow, I turn 29. I'm kind of excited. I invited my coworker and ex coworkers to pizza tomorrow night at a place that has 2 for 1 specials, and the only problem I could foresee is rampant rioting or the city shutting down its transportation system, either of which would probably curtail  my birthday festivities, and there's a strong liklihood of the latter.

I've been thinking a lot lately about austerity and decadence. Although from the outside, I would appear to live a very austere life here, I am actually quite comfortable, even decadent, in a flaneur or bohemian way.

At 29, I am the most laid back I've been in my entire life. I was talking about how type A we architects are, and my roommate gave me a quizical look and commented that I didn't seem type A at all. I've changed a lot since starting college. When I started ASU, my philosophy was "work harder than the people at Rice." My ego and the initial blazing joy of design fueled my drive. Three years of numbing work taught me that the profession of architecture will not reward you. Graduate school taught me that in architecture, you must reward yourself by diving into what you love.

I'm too patient about some things. I'm not tenacious or persistant enough. I tend to listen to the opening of doors and live by generally going through invitingly ajar doors rather than kicking them down. I need to get better at door-kicking and do more of it.

I'm still pretty stupid about some things I think I should have down at this point. Procrastination is going to be one of those things I'll keep on fighting tomorrow.

What you value and prioritize changes as you get older, but at 29, I feel like I have at least a good grasp of mine.

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Medium is the message

I moved the blog again. I deleted the Tumblr account and moved everything to Medium.com, a more writing-centric website. medium.com/@wende