Drawing his destiny

INSPIRED BY DAD. Neil Andrew Menjares says being an architect is what he wanted even as kid. “I was inspired by my father, who is a very good painter. But I drew a lot of buildings, from houses to factories and even a kitcheninterior. I have kept those drawings.”

One can only count the eager-beavers who successfully pursue their childhood dreams. Priorities change and other factors come in that can easily tickle a person’s fickle-mindedness and make the shift to other destinations.

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For Neil Andrew Menjares, being an architect is what he had always wanted even as an innocent little kid.

“I was very frustrated then when I could not draw and paint people and nature as naturalistic as I could. I was inspired by my father, who is a very good painter.

But I drew a lot of buildings from houses to factories and even a kitchen interior. I have kept those drawings to this day,” narrates the eighth placer in the most recent architects licensure examination (ALE) held in Manila just last June.

This was a record year for the ALE as it attracted 2,004 examinees from all over the country. Only 993 passed with the graduate from the University of San Carlos as the lone Cebuano who landed in the top 10.

Having a cousin who topped a previous ALE, and with the high expectations from family, relatives, mentors and friends, Neil says it was extra “pressure”. But he made it also, an added reason for him to do more than just pass the board examinations. He actually had “topping the boards” in his mind.

“Somehow I was able to understand and answer the questions that were given. But the fear and anxiety were still there because I wasn’t sure if the answers I made were 100 percent right.

I have to say that my intense exposure at the construction site during my apprenticeship really helped a lot,” he recalls of the two-day exams. A minimum number of apprenticeship hours or diversified learning experience in actual architecture practice under an architect-mentor is required before an architecture graduate can take the ALE.

Neil recalls that the “good news” came to him by way of a text message, which he received from a friend. He was attending a late afternoon mass. Upon knowing that he passed and copped the eighth place, he immediately went back to the church and prayed in thanksgiving.

Hard work was indeed instrumental to his proud feat. Neil was a consistent honor student since his high school years. Although his “graduation march” was postponed because of major revisions required in his college thesis, he was still able to claim his diploma with honors in October two years ago. And with prayers (Neil said that while he and his board mates-slash-co-examinees in Manila studied hard, they prayed harder), he adds another flashy feather on his cap.

Now that he has fulfilled his dream in being a licensed architect, he plans of working here for some time before considering employment or taking up graduate studies abroad.

“I would also like to teach someday,” adds Neil.

So, what would this board top-notcher love to do as his first project? “I would really love to do our own home. We never had one. Right now we are living in a company housing. I would love to do that really soon. My family will be very happy to come home to a house we could call our own,” he says.

With steel-like determination, this new architect’s dreams are just within his reach.