I recently caught a break in my studies and decided to dug out the old joystick, grab the latest SCP and MVPs, and work my way down the campaign list. I'm about a third done and I have to say, HLP is a much different place from when I joined. The quality level of these campaigns has increased dramatically as the community has absorbed more and more talent.... A game released in the late 90's and in 2011 we are still growing and pushing the limits further and further. I just started playing The Ascendant the other day. Such breathtaking atmosphere! What a gorgeous mod. I remember when a mod of that scale grabbed the attention of the entire community and held it for ages. For so long we were enraptured with Inferno, Inferno, Inferno! Yet such incredible quality is so commonplace nowadays, most people don't even seem to get excited. So many new faces on the forums, so many old faces gone. I still remember the day I decided to stop lurking, register, and post. I remember Steak blasting me with the welcome beam. I was a kid back then. I hated school, hated my life. Freespace was my escape. I was either playing, fredding, or lurking HLP. My years of fred didn't really amount to much, but to this day I encourage people to check out FS2, tell them about the SCP, tell them about Hard Light.... In hopes that I'm responsible for introducing the next Blaise or Ransom to the board. I still base the upgrades to my PC based on "Can it run the latest SCP/MVPs?" Despite being just a lurker, I feel a strong connection to HLP and waves of nostalgia wash through me whenever I am possessed to type "Hard Light" in the search bar and see whats up. Sometimes I run into personal Shivans and I vanish from the Aquitaine's radar for a while, but I always find myself coming back to the only online community I ever felt a part of. Thank you for always letting me back in the hangar bay, no matter how many Shivans are on my tail.
Wow I'm tearing up. did not mean to write all that.
tsdr, hey guys.
I'm at a bit of a fork in my life. I was hoping some of you may know abit about what I'm considering and offer some insight.
For the past few years I've been quietly earning a bachelors degree in architecture in Detroit. Now I don't know how much you know about Detroit, but they certainly aren't building anything here, and from a recent real estate conference I attended, they won't be building here anytime soon. or in the near future. or the distant future.
My chances of finding any kind of job/internship here are dismal at best, plus I'm so sick of this terrible place and want to go out and see the world. I have lots of meaningful friendships here but quite honestly its not worth spending my life here. (Plus, for better or worse, I don't allow others to guide my life at all anymore, you all know where that got me.....) Every month I feel more and more trapped and stagnant. Whatever my future plans involve, they must not be in Michigan.
I'm also having doubts about my choice of career thus far. It seems like in Architecture, you are either an expendable intern that could be let go at a moments notice (and will be let go when a given contract is up) or you go to school for another two years and become the big architect who owns their own firm or is a principal at a major corporate firm.... So basically, you are threatened by the instability of your career until you get your masters, required internship hours, and finally certification, and then your career consumes you.
Awfully pessimistic I know. The professors keep telling us we need to have lots passion to pursue a career in Architecture. I believe them. I don't know if I have passion or not. I'm pretty good at it. I enjoy it. But passion? Clearly not, as I'm worried about it overtaking too much of my life. My friends re-assure me that I must have passion for it to be pursuing it for 3 years quite unwaveringly, (most students drop out by now).... but Its really more of not being able to see myself do anything else. Plus its just easy for me, I'm naturally good at it.... but to get a job, especially the way things are now, you need these bull**** "soft skills"..... and my least favorite word in the world "networking".... ugh I can't stand it. I don't stand a chance at it because I'm so introverted. I also hate competition. The field is so damn competitive. We're slitting each others throats for internships. The only escape from this is the public sector. However, the government does not hire many architects. The ones they do hire nowadays are all on contract basis.... so once you're done with your current job, you better hope theres another one coming down the pipe and you better hope you're there to catch it. Also, it seems to be that a single aesthetically daft fiscally conservative politician could decide one day to just cut all the architects and have the civvies do everything, and there goes my career.
So rather than roll the dice to my likely demise, I think I'm going to get a masters degree in urban planning instead.
I like urban planning. I'm good at analyzing tons of data, super complex situations... and finding the main factors that contribute to whatever effect. Also from Architecture I'm really good at designs and layouts.... optimizing zoning, transportation, etc. etc. What I'm NOT good at is politics and buisness. I can see that being either a large or small potential hurdle depending on where I end up within the field. The field itself is very wide and ambiguous. It seems like there are many places I could be employed.... from local planning boards and bureaus to independent private sector urban design consulting firms. The potential seems nebulous, but its a very large nebula. And you all know what Kappa Wing does when confronted with a large nebula. I hope maybe some of you guys know something about this field and can give me some info so I don't get lost in this soup.
As far as locations to study this field goes, I'm looking at going to one of the top 25 of the 75 accredited schools. Filtering by places out of my price range and places I know I don't wan't to go, I've narrowed down to a few cities.
-Chicago (currently my number one. been there, love it.)
-Austin
-Seattle
-General SoCal Area
(haven't been to either of the three but heard only good things)
I assume I'll be making most of my professional connections in grad school.... so I'll probably end up more or less attatched to the city I pick to study in. Which would you guys reccomend and why?
TLDR:
- Which of the cities bulleted above is best to live in?
- Do you know anything about the field of urban planning?Thanks for reading all that.
