Battle of the Buildings

Finding a building to use for your varsity project is like finding your soulmate: You expect to walk past him and steal a glance, get butterflies in your stomach and instantly know he's the one. But more often than not it takes ages, leaves you confused and momentarily dazed and is never the one you expect. Also, that 'stolen glance across a crowded room' thing...only in the movies.
So when it came time to choose a building to use for my project, I thought it only natural to skip through town, frolicking like I'm in a musical, and wait for the lightening-bolt moment where my building would look at me and say "Here I am baby....use me".

HOWEVER....that was very highly and truly not the case. Because of course out of the hundreds of buildings in Port Elizabeth and the very many streets and roads to explore, my building was no where to be found. Sounding a lot like my old love life. Throw in a scroll of comments from lecturers and half a thousand phone calls later, there I was, after about 3 months of searching, with nothing. Oh, and that doesn't include the resounding 5 buildings that I chose which for several reasons wouldn't work for my project and were rejected.  RIP.

Finally, after semi giving up and resorting to eating ice cream and watching Interior makeover videos while mourning over the buildings I'd lost, the building of my dreams revealed itself. A stud of a building with thick sturdy walls, rich hardwood floors and a façade to match. It was perfect...or so I thought. Like a typical scene from Romeo and Juliet our love was not meant to be as the owner subsequently told me that I was forbidden from using the building and should look elsewhere. Because, you know, life can never just be easy.

So after being back to square one and out of ideas....and after a lot of junk food and venting....my lecturer and I found him. A stunning building with so much potential. He has a couple of years on him and needs some TLC, but he really is beautiful. It's like they say, he was worth the wait.

I cannot tell you with certainty and foresight of thought that this is my final and decided building. To be honest in the back of my mind I'm still expecting something to go horribly wrong and have to do all of the frolicking and ice cream eating and searching again. But, for now, I'm blissfully and ignorantly happy and think I've found the one. Only time will tell...

Stay kind...and don't ever give up.