What Was I Thinking?

Going to try and do this because this is MY suggested topic, so well, what was I thinking? I’m mean I am sitting hear sitting here trying to come off of a serious layoff from the Architalks post on what has seemingly been a series of crazy busy two weeks.  Come on we’ve all been there, you’re rushing to a permit submission, you see the light at the end of the tunnel and BOOM an avalanche of client changes, of CM request and of contractor submittals, sure metaphorical avalanche but you feel like it’s an actual one, because work keeps piling up and the weight feels heavy and THAT is when you drop you head a bit, rub your face and think “what was I thinking”. We’ve all had those days that sometimes makes you question why you put yourself through the frustration, through the stress, and the buckets of Tum’s I seem to go through.  

That’s when I lift my head up from my hands, probably pop a few more Tum’s and remember why it is we actually do this, why we put ourselves through the stress?  I mean we could have had any other job that simply puts in a good hard days of work and leaves it all there at the end of the day and not carry it home, not to let it keep you up at nights but that would have been easy, we love the challenge.  We love that we get to create dreams.  We get to sit down with a client and listen to what is passionate to them and help them realize that passion.  We turn a thought into an idea, that idea into a sketch, a scribble, and doodle and that doodle because a building.  That building could be the start of something new, or be the bookend to a life’s work.  We get to create environments where people move through unknowingly on who created it, who stressed over the details, who popped those Tum’s.  But, when you, and I have told this story before, but it bares mentioning again, when you take that client into their dream for the first time, and they cry, I mean really cry tears of joy thinking that they’d never get a chance to see their dream come into reality and you, YOU, were the one that helped make it a reality…Well, that IS what i was thinking.

I wasn’t sure this is what I was going to write about when I suggested the topic, I mean sarcastically I knew what I was intending, but taking the sarcasm out of it, I really wasn’t sure.  But as the text came in from Lora Teagarden “you’re posting right?”. I um, I well…ok sure, but really? It’s the NCAA finals and I am yelling and screaming for my lifelong love Michigan Wolverines, thinking to myself “what was I thinking?” should I have really told her I was going to do this when I really had no intention of writing this?  

Please check out all of the other wonderful architalk post and what they were thinking:

Lora Teagarden – L² Design, (@L2DesignLLC) https://www.l-2-design.com/what-was-i-thinking

Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect) http://www.roguearch.com/rogue-blog/2018/3/24/what-was-i-thinking-architalks

Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk  (@wishingrockhome) http://wishingrockstudio.com/?p=4470′ target=’_blank’>WWIT — Convenience Kills!</a></p>

Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel) https://inmawomanarchitect.blogspot.com/2018/04/what-was-i-thinking.html

Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz) http://theemergingarchitect.com/2018/04/02/what-was-i-thinking/

Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum) https://www.boardandvellum.com/blog/what-was-i-thinking-learning-from-your-mistakes-when-starting-a-business

Jim Mehaffey – Yeoman Architect (@jamesmehaffey) http://yeomanarchitect.blogspot.com/2018/04/what-was-i-thinking.html

Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects  (@architectmark) http://www.markstephensarchitects.com/architalks-37-whatwasithinking