My First Six Months in the Construction World

I can't believe it's already Christmas in 3 days! THREE DAYS!!!

Saying that I have been busy for the past months could be the understatement of the year. Since the construction of our house started last June, it has been one heck of crazy, stomach churning, hair raising ride of emotions since then.

I feel like a newbie soldier that just has come out of a battlefield...bruised, filthy, bloodied to the very core... limping, yet walking slowly away from the crazy inferno. I guess construction life does this to people (at least to me.)

I have learned a great deal more about architecture, engineering, construction, and surprisingly, about business (among others) in the past six months in the construction world. It definitely trumps all those years of slaving around in a 9 to 5 job in front of a computer, with the occasional yells and burns from the boss and annoying co-workers. Although I have been an architect for 4 years now, I can say that I still have so much to learn.

Everyday is a learning process for me. Every client, every laborer or worker I work with, every peso I lost due to my own negligence, every lapse of judgement, every problem I encountered- they are all instruments that could make me better at what I do someday. Who knows, five, ten years from now, I could look back to this moment in my career and still be thankful for all the challenges I was able to surpass, with God's grace.

There were number of times that I wanted to give up, to not go on living. To runaway and leave is the easier route. But in my mind, and in my heart, this is what I wanted to do. I want to build and design people's dreams. I want to give to them their hard earned money's worth (though I learned this the hard way.) I need to fail in order for me to succeed. The lessons I took away are more important than the monetary gains.

There's this quote I have read somewhere that's quite fitting for my first six months of my solo career:

"If you fail, fail fast."