Whittier middle school is one of the buildings that I hate. For the three years that I was forced to step foot in that building, I hated just about every minute of it. Don’t get me wrong, there were good days, but for the most part, they were bad days. I didn’t like the teachers, the students, the environment, and, yes, I hated the building. I remember every Monday morning walking through the halls with dread, looking around at a newly renovated building that didn’t provide an education equivalent to the structure. You see, the problem with the building was that it was all for show, like a Long John Silver’s commercial. The food might look remotely decent, but when you taste it, it’s absolutely putrid. The building may look somewhat pretty, but considering its purpose, it’s ugly.

The purpose or the meaning of Whittier middle school was and still is to provide adolescents an education. It had walls that were round in shape to provide “cool” classrooms. It had many windows in the newly renovated areas that most likely served the purpose of allowing kids to connect with their environment. But despite the architect’s best efforts to provide a great educational structure, the building still filled me with dismay. Now that I think about it, the building could have been state of the art, and I still believe I would have received the same emotions that I do now. It wasn’t necessarily the building that I disliked, but rather the emotions the building gave me. I was not filled with joy when I went to the building, and therefore, every time I pass by it now, I think it looks absolutely hideous. The building failed to sufficiently provide me with its one purpose: a good classroom experience. 

It didn’t make me happy. It made me sad, and that sadness has made me hate that “type” of architecture because every time I encounter a building similar to it, it reminds me of my memories and how bad they were. I guess what Whittier Middle School taught me is that a building does not get its beauty just from the material that it’s made of or its intricate design. Rather, a building gets its beauty from the impact that it has on people. Sometimes a grand building is enough to make one feel in awe, but most times it does not, nor is it always feasible to create such a structure. Thus, something magnificent is constructed when it touches the hearts of others. When it creates those fond memories.