Architecture is not really architecture

I think about what architecture represents to me, and it’s not really about the architecture. It’s more of an ideal for me, something for me to chase after in my life. It represents more than just a job or an income. I think I’ve glorified it a bit too much, to be honest. I don’t really know if I’ll be happy as an architect. How can one know that if one hasn’t even done the job yet. I just know that I’m good at mechanical engineering and I like the arts and I have a lot of experience in the medical field. These are all attributes that would ostensibly make for a good healthcare architect. Yet, I still need to learn the craft and, as I mentioned in the previous post, take on the massive debt and sacrifice that all of that entails to reach the ending, which may or may not be worth it. It’s just a job after all, and I don’t think I’ll ever rise to the status of, say, Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid. You can’t count on winning the lottery, so to speak.

Nevertheless, this got me thinking a bit harder about the etiology of the desire to become an architect. There is a need in our society for healthcare architects, as it is a growing field and demand for hospitals are surging for our aging population. I don’t really know what I’m doing at this very moment in the situation that I’m in. I do feel that I am floundering to a certain extent and perhaps can benefit from a change to a job that I’m perhaps more suited for. Is that medical writing? I don’t really know. I do enjoy writing as it does provide me the subjective and creative aspects that I crave out of a profession. But medial writing, especially in the regulatory processes, sounds like an inherently mundane task and one that requires a very specific form of rule-based thinking. I’m not certain I’m capable of that, or if that’s something I’ll enjoy. Then again, a job is just a job?