Since the start of my time in BNU, till today in 4th Year the experience has been truly otherworldly. I remember while applying for universities my parents telling me that these years spent in university along with the people you meet, will be some of the best of your life and will be forever memorable. I seriously doubted it, but now I see that they were right. Being in one institution for the entirety of my student life, I didn’t gain the kind of exposure students would have from shifting schools every now and then. So, coming to an entirely new place to study was kind of daunting for me. Add to the fact that unlike the rest of my school friends, I did not have anyone I previously knew coming with me to BNU. But now I look at it like a blessing in disguise because it gave me the chance to meet and befriend new people that I probably wouldn’t have done had I already had a circle of friends with me.
I still remember the first day in BNU standing there in the RHSA courtyard waiting for our orientation to start. All the new faces walking around, observing everyone, trying to gage how to approach someone new. Little did I know I would land up with friends on this very day who would stick by me throughout the future years. From there onwards it was a multitude of new experiences, one after the other. First year was spent trying to find our footing in this new challenge in life that we had chosen for ourselves. For some people, such as myself it served as teaching us something new about our self and discovering our passion. For others it led to re-evaluation of their choices and ultimately shifting to a new path. It was a very fun and different way of starting into Architecture. Something I think none of us expected after hearing how tough and demanding this degree could be.
Second Year really made us question what we were thinking in our First Year. It was a total opposite to our previous year, both teaching and experience wise. It was very technical with hard data and information just being fed to us from every direction. This was the reality aspect of our degree, and believe me when I say that we did not like it one bit. Sure, it taught us a lot and without the knowledge we received in this year we could not really be called architects, but after our First Year this just seemed extremely dull and boring to us. This was the type of experience we thought we were going to receive in First Year but it managed to hit us a year later catching us off guard in a sense.
From then onwards, 3rd and 4th Year were like a breath of fresh air in comparison. The amount of freedom we received with our work coupled with the guidance of our teachers really made it a great leaning experience. Now that we had been taught the basics, our teachers wanted us to explore and see what we wanted to achieve as architects with our own minds. This was honestly both terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time. It was an achievement on our grounds to finally be able to have total reins on what we wanted to do and to deal with their consequences as that is a package deal.
All in all, my time in BNU definitely has been one of the best times of my life so far. Sure, there have been tough times in this entire process but I believe that my experiences and the memories that I have gathered in this institution have shaped me into a better version of myself. My time here has made me more mature and thoughtful of the decisions I make. The various moments I have had with my friends and fellow batch mates are ones that I will never forget. Playing kona kona and Kings in the RHSA courtyard, running around in the puddles during the rainy season in the basement of BNU, playing Baraf Pani in the main lawn opposite the Cafeteria, going to said cafeteria every day and grumbling and complaining about the increasing amount of people, sitting in the RHSA courtyard and working and jamming to some good music, looking at pictures on Sir Usman’s laptop and hear him complain about the younger batches. Not to forget managing to snag the television Sir Zain and Sir Sajjad used for their classes and watching Game of Thrones final season as well as movies on Netflix on it. These and so many more memories are the ones I will cherish forever wherever life may take me.
And this is just till the 4th Year... We still have an entire year of thesis and sleepless nights and group studies with constant messages on endless groups asking ‘Yarr kitna kaam hoa?’ just to give us hope we are not the only ones struggling, to go through. Let's see what more comes our way in the final chapter of this saga of our lives.
