Influences on architecture can start at such an early age without one even noticing it. It is the little things in life we surround ourselves with while growing up that have the greatest impacts on one’s decision. Influences can be where you grow up, what you surround yourself with, technological or physically. Growing up with the booming of technology did have its advantages. Games on my desktop and apps on my iPad are what made me exciting about designing and building my own little world.

As an adolescent, thinking about my future was not on my list at all. I was just a kid who just wanted to play fun games on my computer and iPad. It started when I downloaded Sims. With Sims, I could create any world I wanted, all run by me and designed by me, the people, the town, the homes’ interior and exterior designs. This was so fun and exciting. I created my own town and named all the people after my family. The first home to be build was my own, of course. I designed the exact replica of my home in Sims and to be honest it was extremely similar. The walls, flooring, roof, plans backyard were all spot on. I was so proud of my work that I continued to design my dream home. At that point I wasn’t thinking that this is what I want to do with my life, become an architect; to me, a ten-year-old, I just thought this was fun. I didn’t think that Sims was slowly sculpting me to become a little architect. Looking back at it now, Sims influenced me so much because of all the work I put in, I enjoyed it. It took a long time for me to make money and build my dream houses, but the end result made me feel so happy and proud it was all worth the wait. Being a ten-year-old, I was very impatient and to realize that I was patient enough to build big houses from scraps made me realize that it was because I was passionate about architecture and the long waits and work made it all worth it because I wouldn’t have sat around if it was anything but architecture.

There are many other influences that sculpt a young child’s mind into loving architecture, but this was my main reason. Moving on from Sims to Rhino to Revit makes my younger self proud and happy that I’m taking the next steps into this profession. Influences is what inspires these young minds, and they are all around us, we just need to keep searching and find the right one to help us along a certain path.