A couple of months ago I was packing and preparing to move from my university city, Nottingham, to a new job and new life in Cambridge.

As you do when you’re moving, especially after moving just the year before, you want to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ you have and in the process of going through all my stuff, amongst old notebooks and drawings, I came across my university certificates.. and university work, and A-Level work and secondary school grades. I found myself reading (and crying) my way through the education which led to me qualifying as an Architect.

A couple of months ago I was packing and preparing to move from my university city, Nottingham, to a new job and new life in Cambridge.

As you do when you’re moving, especially after moving just the year before, you want to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ you have and in the process of going through all my stuff, amongst old notebooks and drawings, I came across my university certificates.. and university work, and A-Level work and secondary school grades. I found myself reading (and crying) my way through the education which led to me qualifying as an Architect.

If you are my current boss or in fact, any future boss where I am applying to be an Architect, it’s probably best for all of us if you just don’t read this :) if however you’re an architecture student wondering what to do, come on down.

This week’s piece is for anyone who has deviated in any way from the standard Architecture journey and is feeling confused about what to do next or scared that they may have missed their chance. Let me tell you now, you’re all good .

The idea for this post initially came to me when one of my students wanted to talk about their mental health and how it has been and could in the future, affect their work. I am obviously not going to go into detail but it reminded me of an important point about architecture that many people forget: not everyone starts from the same place or has the same advantages or obstacles along their journey…

I, as an unspoken rule to myself, do not like speaking in public. I never have. Tell a lie, I take pride in the fact that when I was in primary school, I was very happy to act in school plays in front of students, teachers and parents (in the lead role of course).

Since then, however - a mere 20+ years ago - I have avoided public speaking at all costs. To be fair, there haven't been many opportunities beyond the occasional group presentation in secondary school, but you’d best believe, that if they did arise, you would not have seen me volunteering. In comes however, studying Architecture at University.

Architecture has dulled me somewhat. I feel that as a person, I tend to be quite funny, sarcastic, a bit cynical, a bit awkward but also kind, caring and empathetic. These are not qualities or attributes commonly used to describe an Architect or words that people who do not know me well, would use to describe me at all. The expectation is professional, and whilst I do my very best to reflect that, I feel I could do more to show the rest of my attributes…