'Critical Thinking in Design' is the first course that made me question if what I was studying was actually what I wanted to pursue, but it wasn't interior design or architecture, I was a psychology major.
It was an elective course that new and different and even though I was hooked, I thought its novelty will wear off, and plus, I was already half way through my psych undergrad, it was too late to switch, so I stuck it out with my psych major and graduated. I was young and felt the pressure from my parents to choose the 'right' career path, which according to them, and apparently to me, was to become a primary teacher.
Critical thinking in design kind of blew my mind and because I already liked psychology, learning about how space can affect our thoughts, emotion and well being was a very cool concept. It is a concept that I feel gets ignored when we think about all the different spaces we occupy.
Needless to say, even after graduating University, I had a constant nagging at the back of my brain that teaching may not be the right choice for me. Lying to my parents saying I was all set to go into teaching was the hardest thing to do. The thought that I could still catch a beating from my mom was also all too real! Nevertheless, I waited until the last possible minute to confess that I had a change of heart about my career path. It went as bad as I had feared..
Long story short, I made a decision to follow my heart and passion and it has not let me down so far. I went back to more school, ick, and grind out another 3 years to get my bachelor of interior design and start my journey in design. I have no regrets in pursuing the design industry, I only regret not being honest about it from the beginning.
