Architecture school takes its toll, mentally, physically, psychologically, existentially and lots of others ways and forms. During the terms, you are forced to look at society, culture and maybe hardest of all; yourself, design can be a powerful lens in which you have to look through. Thankfully we have summer vacation, it is the perfect avenue to recharge and refuel, cooking, laundry, cleaning, sleeping on a regular schedule, the banality of everyday life seems to obtain a deeper meaning. I guess it is no surprise that the moments we never have time for, we relish in the summer.

Physical deterioration is one of the most obvious symptoms of architecture school, some people substantially lose weight or gain a little... showering, shaving, and eating healthy. We can all be excused a little during the year in the name of design. But then the weather starts to get warm and we switch from working on models working on ourselves. Case in point is the photo above, I’m ashamed to say to has been longer than the standard 6 months before my last visit, perhaps education is to blame, but I also tend to be lazy when it comes to things no related to my projects. The good news was I only had to two small cavities, and of course I need to floss more, one of the required courses for dental hygienist must be guilt tripping.

The whole situation was not as bad I thought and insurance covered a lot (hooray for being a student). I have also been buying healthier foods, which makes me think why is it so hard during the academic year to maintain oneself in the same manner? Well the answer is, it is not, like anything else in architecture school it takes planning, discipline and motivation. Traits inherent that any architecture student possesses. I guess we’ll see with the final year coming up how much of these summer habits I can keep up.