Who am I without you

The agents of socialization has four main agents: the family, the school, peer groups, and mass media. All of these four agents has helped strengthen and build my character. Yet in this entry, I will focus on one agent which is peer groups.

                The peer group that has truly helped me in becoming who I am today is no doubt my college classmates, otherwise known as X2. I have been together with these people for 5 years already, and I know fully well that they are my favorite bunch so far in my entire existence. Being together with them for the longest time has brought attachments, and they have taught me quite a lot which has proved to be beneficial to my welfare. We all may have had our ups and downs, but no matter what, I still hold them dear in my heart.

                As Architecture students, we all struggled to make it this far. The first year was the year wherein everything was still fresh and innocent, and we were still getting to know each other. As the years passed by, I can say that it was never an easy ride for every single one of us. In our second year, third year, and fourth year, we made sure our bond would be strong as ever by going out on adventures, having fun, and just simply bonding with each other. Little did we know how our course would actually test our friendships, and so it proved that every friendship has its ups and downs. You see, in our course, we experience immense pressure due to several deadlines, and overlapping requirements from our other subjects.  It is in these times that we have to think ahead and learn to balance our time wisely. Before our thesis year, there have already been issues present in our class. Even if we ignored them, they would eventually arise whenever we had our retreats and recollections. There were several friendships that were tested due to several factors. One factor is that being an Architecture student tends to influence you to be in competition with your other classmates. There would always be that feeling of being compared to others even if you try your best.  Another is that being in groups would also tend to challenge you and your groupmates. The ones who are not that cooperative or the ones who don’t comply the requirements in time are the ones who will become left out. Since we are very constrained with our time, we need to budget our time wisely and that we think that there’s no room for those who don’t comply. These are just some of the many issues that we have faced over the years. With all the stress that has been going on, it was difficult to see what is really important.  

But aside from these cons, there are still pros which prove to be much more significant and will defeat the purpose of the cons. In our thesis year, we learned to settle aside our differences and help each other out. There are still issues, but we learned to look at the bigger picture and just try our best to help others so that they could pass and graduate on time. For all the 5 years of being with them, I have never expected that everything would happen the way they did. These are just some of the many things I have learned along the way:

1. No matter how difficult things may get, friendship would always prevail.

2. True friends would always be there for you no matter what.

3. Never let the small things get in the way of the things that matter most.

On my part, I wouldn’t be who I am today if not for these people. These friends of mine are what have inspired me to become better, because they have supported me throughout my college journey. They guided me whenever I had difficulty in our design subjects, or other aspects. We would also share creative ideas and collaborate, helping each other out. That is also one of the beauties of being an Architecture student – being able to learn and grow with the people you share the same passion with.

Aside from that, they are the ones who taught me just how imperfect life is, and that it takes a lot of strength, forgiveness, and patience to recover from all the problems that have been going on. They have opened my eyes to what I clearly couldn’t see before – that even friendship could still be ruined if you guys don’t take care of it. Most importantly, life is a journey that you can walk alone, but it would be much more beautiful if it was walked with your friends.