Seven thousand dollars

Seven thousand dollars is the price of the laptop that would meet all the processing requirements for my degree at SCI-Arc; that is almost absurd to think about. Of course, there is a small sale at the moment, and the laptop has been going for around $5000 to $6000, which is still an insane price to pay for a computer. Architecture certainly is an interesting professional path. With initial costs already adding up, I think I still need to purchase a 3D printer and a bunch of other stuff as well—it’s such an insane transition with the expected starting salary. I’m sort of on the fence now when I think about whether it will be worth it in the end. I guess only time will tell. 

This is one of those situations where you cannot know the outcome of both paths. There’s only one universe, and when we reach a crossroad, we need to pick a direction knowing that the other decision will forever be an unknown. Architecture school is one such situation. If I didn’t do architecture, I think I would go into medical writing and start strengthening my writing capabilities in preparation to become a professional writer. I’ve never been that adept with language, so the thought of me becoming a published author is something that is somewhat unexpected. But then again, I do have a doctorate and wrote plenty of scientific documents during those five years. 

At the end of the day, paying seven thousand dollars for a computer is still mind-boggling. I really do hope that the sale comes back after August, or perhaps I’ll just have to wait another year before I make the purchase. I did, after all, just buy a MacBook Air with higher specifications. All in all, I will have spent close to ten grand of my modest salary on computing power alone in the past year or so, which absolutely needs to be controlled in the future. Those computers had better at least last for a decade or so.