When I moved from southern California to Flower Mound, Texas, Downing Middle School was one of the first buildings in which I interacted and spent a great deal of time. While many of the memories that I made within the walls of this building were positive, the architectural design of the building influenced me in negative way.

I came to Texas not knowing anybody, let alone having any friends, so this building influenced me in many ways. During my two and a half years at this school, I made countless memories and am still friends with some of the people I met there to this day. From playing football out on the field to eating lunch with my friends to going to classes that did not have too much stress, I associate my time spent in this school with my own adolescence and childhood.

However, not all the memories of this building were positive, and the overall architecture of the building washed away many of the good memories and replaced them with a boiling hatred for the place. First, when I first moved to Texas, I was missing my life in California and all my friends there, making it difficult to adjust to the new life and make new friends. Next, some of my teachers were terrible; they hated their jobs and did not want to be there, making it impossible for me to get acclimated to the new setting. Finally, the building was not the ugliest architecture that I have ever seen, but it had certain elements that were bound to give some people depression. The outside was shaped exactly like all the other middle schools in the area, making it look extremely basic, and the color of the bricks used on the building made it look depressing, especially when all the grass turned brown in the winter. Also, the inside was extremely cramped and small with a bunch of little kids pushing and shoving their ways through the hall. This was a huge difference from the school I had moved from, where we would walk outside in the fresh air from one class to another.

In conclusion, Downing Middle School influenced me in a positive way in that it is the place where I made a lot of formative memories and met some very close friends. However, in many instances, it negatively influenced me due to it being hard to make friends, teachers that did not want to be there, and the design of the building being depressing. Overall, to this day, I really do not like the building, but I have learned to appreciate it for some of the memories and friends that it has brought me.