Back to school, back to school…

By: Casey Bucher

It’s only been a full day back from Christmas break and I’m already looking forward to the next break.  Unlike several of my classmates, my break was extremely busy.  Since day one, I was up at 6am everyday, making the uneventful drive to Paducah, Kentucky for work.  While I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work in a design firm over all my school breaks, I also am envious of the people that did nothing but lay in bed and watch Netflix every day.  You lucky, lucky people… However, while they were enjoying the break, I was actually learning over the break.  Working on real projects, for real clients for five weeks was such a tease into what life will be like for me in six short months. 

Working for i5 Design Group as an architectural designer was nothing short of spectacular.  The real world situations that I was put in make me excited about the future.  Though studio projects can be fun, working through everyday problems for a real firm, for real clients is where architecture gets exciting…and partially stressful.  Going out to job sites, meeting clients, designing buildings, picking out paint colors, hanging up artwork, were just a few of the things I experienced in just one day on the job.  All of this makes you feel worthwhile and so happy I picked this career.  In the five short weeks that I was working, my projects varied from a bank remodel, to a complete building gut and renovation, to a new house, to a train car remodel, to a new business building.  This variety in building types taught me so many things and showed me all the details that went into making each building a success. 

In the coming months, as I put my resume and portfolio together, I hope to find several job options that are very similar to the job like I had at i5 Design.  Architecture work and construction documents can sometimes get monotonous.  However, when you work for a small firm the variety of day-to-day activities will make it impossible to become uninteresting.  Though it may be impossible to find a job as great as the one I previously had, my fingers are crossed that there will be one out there for me.