Weekly Reflections #06 : Life's Turning Points |My Quantity Surveying Journey

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Life is full of a lot of curves and turning points, each one posing a different challenge that helps to build us individually. Sometimes the road might not be so smooth, and your resolve will be tested, but how you deal with this adversity is what will either mar you or make you.

I always wanted to be an Architect growing up. I would spend hours drawing sketches of various building plans for hours undisturbed thanks to my supportive parents. I had awesome post-high school examinations results, all except one-an entrance examination conducted by the school I had chosen to apply to. I let overconfidence bring my downfall, and for the first time in my life, I experienced what it was like to get a bad score in an examination. This is just a brief summary of how I found myself studying Quantity Surveying, my current course of study, thus birthing a turning point in my career choice.

The first few semesters studying this course were a bit challenging for me, owing to the fact that I hadn't prior knowledge about the knowledge scope the field entailed. I started memorizing things that should have been rather understood. Basically, I was lost in the middle of a wide ocean until… my third year. I got a call from a distant relative who happened to be a civil engineer on a project, and he needed a Quantity Surveyor to help prepare a "Physical Valuation" to verify the extent of work done on-site to be able to pay the specialist contractor for that job. I immediately called a friend to inquire about what to expect, and that was the level of preparedness that I had with me as I proceeded to the site.

From the moment I got there, I started to appreciate the field of Quantity Surveying. I realized that these were things that should have been easy for me if I had just gone to a construction site to see how the works were carried out. I went back to school the next day with renewed interest and understanding, and that became a major turning point for me.

The experience was a major eye-opener for me, and the only thing I wanted was to learn more. I started going to more sites, reading more books, and finally decided to learn a soft skill focused on how to use special software to carry out Quantity Surveying tasks. At the time, they weren't very popular, so I capitalized on that training, included it in my CV, and with that, I was able to get internship opportunities in various construction firms, furthering my personal and professional development.

The downside to having soft skills is having too many jobs to handle, and it started to affect my studies in the University. Good time management became a sore point for me trying to balance work with school, and at some point, I had to let one go. I decided to focus more on my studies until I was ready again to go back to the industry.

If I didn't get that experience on the site, I probably would have just gotten lost in the field and maybe have a degree that I wouldn't be able to use or eventually drop the course and go for a different one.

Take every problem as an opportunity to develop yourself further. Life isn't always going to be a bed of roses, and for that, you will have to learn to adapt to the challenges it poses. Keep forging ahead and always remember that what is worth doing is worth doing well.

I'm inviting @jayjay42, @bossj23 and @goodybest to also participate in this amazing contest.