REACHING NEW HEIGHTS
SABE LECTURE SERIES
BY DEV MENON
It was a wonderful and inspiring talk by such amazing adventurer and It’s undoubtedly a good start for the lecture series. As introduced, Mr. Dev Menon is a young aspiring adventurer that’s full of will and faith apart from working as a chemical engineer. He travelled to many interesting places around the world during the holidays such as Poland, China and South Africa. Along his journey, he had encountered countless ups and downs which I found very motivational and inspiring. He also shared his incident of being the only passenger on a plane, luggage being left in the other airport and even holding a gun for the first time in South Africa. These are one of the kind experiences that not everyone could have experienced.
The impressive story of Mr. Dev is that he actually went to Mount Everest. That’s not a place where ordinary person can go since I’ve watched the movie Everest which literally show us the dangerous challenges people faced while summiting Everest. Only a person with strong will and perseverance can make it to the top. Based on what I heard from Mr. Dev, the journey to the top is also as challenging as the movie, although he’s only joining the Everest base camp which he climbed Kala Parta. It’s such a brave decision to join Everest base camp as it is the highest peak in the whole wide world. With this I can relate to my life as an architecture student. It was a bold decision to make while signing up for Degree in architecture instead of engineering or graphic design, without knowing it could be this suffering. I literally stepped into hell gate voluntarily.
Just as what Mr. Dev confessed, while hiking up Kala Parta, he reached a point where he wanted to just give up and turn back down the road. To be honest, there’s a lot of times where I too feel like giving up and switch course because I used to be a perfectionist where I want everything to be perfectly organised in my own way. When things doesn’t go the way I wanted it to be, I will start to feel the pressure come crushing down on me. That’s the point where I felt helpless and hopeless even to the point of giving up. But just like what Mr. Dev said “It’s okay, you just take one more step…”
“Just one step at a time…” My mum said the exact same thing every single time I call and it has become one of my greatest words to live by in my degree life, apart from “Keep on keepin on” which I’ve been holding on to since the beginning. I’ve learnt to open up to myself and free myself from the cage that I’ve been imprison all these while. It’s all about doing your best and push your limits, it’s all worth it at the end of the day as perseverance pays, nothing meaningful comes easy. Writing motivational notes to myself eh now?
Along my journey of architecture, it’s safe to say that I’m blessed with good people around me. I’m lucky enough to have met all these amazing people and I’m proud to call them my fellow architecture war mates. They’ve been with me literally through my ups and downs and we cherish every studio moment together. Words couldn’t express how thankful I am to them as I hope that through all the conflicts and disagreements, it’s what makes our bond stronger. With all these people, I feel that I’m already home as Mr. Dev mentioned “Home is not a feeling, not a place.”
I am home.
Architecture. Architorture.
Doesn’t matter what we call it, it is still the one that make us different from others, it’s the one who change our view of perspective in life. We architecture students are like a group of Everest hikers going through thick and thin together and moving forward is the only logical choice we have right here. Well, if you ask me whether if I regret taking up architecutre, nope, it's never a choice to regret now. Things we learn from architecture is way beyond any other courses. The crucial part is that we accept the challenges along the journey and break through obstacles with our own way. *No helicopter evacuation*
So, who said it takes summiting Mount Everest to be called an adventurer?
I am an architecture student and
this, is my adventure.
:D