So they all prayed to God that he teach her
a lesson. God listened to their prayers and dropped a curse on the girl, “Thou
shalt atone for thy sins by taking architecture, where thou shalt be an
underdog!”
That’s
how I ended up here. Now, every coin has two sides and so does this curse. I
shall recount here, my experience as an underdog in my class. An underdog is
the one who is always getting low marks making them on the verge of getting a
year-back.
1.
No emotional trauma (except in
the last minute)
Procrastination
is our religion. ‘We can always do our work later when we are older and wiser’
is our mantra. During that time we can laugh as our classmates start worrying
days before the submissions, like they have an anxiety disorder. They work like
crazy so that they don’t lose out on the competition. They have emotional
breakdowns and cry saying they don’t have a concept. They complain that they
don’t have enough sheets and bring, like, a dozen sheets on reviews.
None of
that affects you. You are an entity
unchained by competition and reviews. This is why you ended up an underdog in
the first place.
2.
You are off the radar
The added
luggage of a design course is the creative competition. This has meddled
between friendships, created rivalry between the students and whatnot. But you
are not part of that. Everybody just loves you. Sometimes I am glad that I am
this way.
I see many students go red in the face when they see the mark list,
because their rival scored better marks. When she claimed she will score less!
How dare she!!
3.
Nobody expects anything from
you
Design is your
baby and you see people come like vultures to dissect your baby. I am talking
about the good students here. Nobody cares to come to my table in the studio to
look at my design. Why should they? Its not even finished yet.
I feel
sympathetic when our class topper is approached by the students asking
“Where is the
class topper’s design? Let us see!”
It might not be
finished and she would be embarrassed to show a sheet that’s not good enough. But
the poor girl is always bugged to show her design, even when she doesn’t want
to. Furthermore, the teachers are disappointed in the good students if they
don’t keep up their design standards, since your standards are rock bottom,
whatever you do they don’t really mind.
4.
Small things are appreciated
When you are
average student they only appreciate the real good stuff. But when you are an
underdog, they applaud even the small things that you did right. Even if you
don’t have anything to submit except a plan, they say,
“Ohh.. nice
drafting!”
“That’s good.
Since that’s all I have anyway.”
5.
Underestimated.
I know there is
good reason for everybody to think this way. But hey! I don’t get marks because
I don’t submit sheets! Not because I
can’t design! What’s even worse is that they make you a standard for
comparison.
‘Man! I think I
am even worse than Ridha this sem!’
They might not
say that aloud, but yeah, you are an example for everybody how not to do this course.
6.
Roja
You might be
wondering who that is. When you go on without submitting your sheets you end up
in the shortlist of five people who are likely to get a year-back. So your
design teachers decide to give you advice and inspire you to get out of
Loserville.
I have had the good fortune of getting into this list almost every
sem. They tell you stories of kids who were really bad once and through sheer
determination and perseverance overcame their hurdles and eventually, became
the design toppers.
I don’t know why, but I always get Roja’s story. When I
hear her success story from my hopeless position, I just hate her more with
every word they say.
7.
Dark rumors
Some beautiful
people who care a lot about you come to know that you are in the year-out list.
They are very considerate, so they imagine what you would do once you get a
year-back. They commune with another equally considerate friend.
“What is she
gonna do when she gets a year-back? She will probably drop out huh? Since her
parents have a lot of money and all?”
“Yeah! There is no
way she will pass with such low marks. She will drop out.”
Viola! Suddenly there is a rumor spreading that you are going to
drop out, when such a thing wasn’t even in your agenda. Friends are coming to
you to give you counseling.
“You should
fight! After all, you survived all these years! Submit your sheets somehow.
Don’t worry, we are all with you. We will help you draw the sheets! " Now
you are dumbstruck and mortified. Time to do some reality check.
8.
Emotional trauma and
existential crisis
(in the last minute)
This happens
during final design, model and portfolio submissions. All the cool ‘I don’t
care’ demeanor has evaporated to last minute panic.
These are very trying
times. We do not eat, sleep, drink, take a bath or even brush our teeth!
Continuous all nighters stretch our nerves super thin. This is when existential
crisis sets in. Questions like,
Why am I doing this?
Why should I do
this?
What if I didn’t
pass?
What am I going
to do in the future? I will never reach anywhere!
Why did I take
this course?! I am not even good at it!
....etc are
asked. And only one answer to all of them. I hate my life!
You want to burn the whole
world, kill everybody or yourself, but rather, you draft, crying like a baby.
On top of this some other beautiful people decide to be a pain to you. They are
in doubt whether there is submission when there is none. So they call the
teachers,
Student: “Sir,
is there model submission tomorrow?”
Sir: Hmm, that
seems like a good idea….”yes you can submit it tomorrow”
Student:”what
about the site model, sir?
Sir: “Okay,
tomorrow, 9’ o ‘clock submission, site model and block model.” The new order is
immediately put up on the Watsapp group, so that tomorrow, everybody gets marks
on an imaginary mark list. You are now struggling to put together a model
within one day.
9.
Underdogs unite!
You are not
alone in your fight against submissions, other underdogs seek you out.
“You didn’t
submit right? Me too! High five sistah! Let’s do it together!”
We do fun stuff
like trying to complete the design in the last minute, give moral support to
each other, beg the teachers to extend the submission dates, beg them to accept
our sheets or models after the due submission dates.
Thanks to them, I always
have company in the most harrowing times. I don’t think the toppers unite and
form lasting friendship like we do, do they?
10.
Epic comebacks
Another specialty
of studying a design course is that there is always space for epic comebacks
and second chances. Roja pulled it off, so can you. If you were an
underdog studying an engineering course
you would have work your ass off to get to the top again, which is not always
possible in the case of academics. But in architecture you just need a stroke
of creativity to turn the situation around in your favor (in my case it came in
the form of white ink on black sheet) and some good friends who will help you
in your crisis.
Even if your internal marks are
low, you can always shine in front of the jury. They do not know your past
follies, whether you submitted on time or not, whether you are of good
character or anything.
The drama and uproar over who finished first and who has
the most number of sheets is over. Looking at the big picture, I don’t think it
even benefited anyone.
In the end I always come to know
that being an underdog is better than turning your head into mush by worrying
over who got better marks.
P.S : a minute
of silent prayer for the author whose ‘carefree’ attitude will get her a
year-back any sem.
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