Undergraduate / Application Essay What got me into architecture, how does it manifest itself in my everyday life? [4]

When I was very young, I was always artistic, but I never thought I was good enough to make it my living. What I was exquisite at was problem-solving, puzzles, and thinking outside the box. Unlike most kids that struggled to decide if they want to be a rock star or an astronaut, I struggled with deciding if I wanted to be an artist or an architect, not realizing they're synonyms at the time. Architecture was a way not only to express my creativity but also to make others question what they thought was beautiful.

Somehow I've always known I wanted to go into one of these fields. Architecture, in my opinion, is one of the most complex forms of art. Everything is very straight edge and technical, but you still have to dig deep down in philosophy to make a building speak to someone whose passing through it. The beauty of architecture is that the idea the designers want you to have is very subtle. Architecture requires us to open up to the idea that we are affected by our surroundings. I noticed this at a young age when I would walk into my grandparent's house; it was old and creaky. You would always get the same feeling walking into their house, nostalgia. If you compared this to walking into a modern house today, stained concrete floors, quartz counter tops, grays, whites; you get a sense of purity, you almost don't want to touch anything because it's too perfect. Every building had a different effect on how you felt.

I found that the fact that you could manipulate people's minds without them even realizing, incredibly fascinating. I began shifting all my goals and intents towards a career in architecture. I went to a technical school for architectural drafting and design theory. Instead of reading books like Harry Potter, I was reading books like "Architecture Form, Space, and Order" by Francis D.K. Ching, and "Architecture of Happiness" by Alain De Botton. Climbing to the top of architectural classes opened up new opportunities such as an Internship through a local architectural design firm, called Mula Design, as well as dual enrollment courses to earn college credits in high school.

Architecture eventually began to take over my life. I never go into a building without thinking to myself, how does this make me feel, or way did the architect do this. The idea and designs I thought of made me all the more confident in setting my eyes on one of the best architectural design schools. The challenges of designing something as large as a building, as common as a building, and yet achieving the same effect the Mona Lisa does when wandering tourists look upon it is something much more than just art, it's an idea that I think about every day.

I revised my essay @Holt to contain some part of my essay that I thought were good as well as including more of my personal experiences