This blog post explores how a personal interest in building materials can be transformed into a concrete career motivation and a strength in a personal statement.
My Upbringing
As a child, I lived in a wooden house my father built himself. Having worked as a carpenter for many years, my father took deep pride in his life’s work. He personally crafted nearly all the furniture in our home—desks, bookshelves, beds, and more. Whatever we desired, he always made a point of putting his heart into creating it for us.
When Father was making something, he enjoyed showing us the entire process himself—from sourcing and preparing the wood to shaping it and assembling it into the finished piece. Watching every moment as the wood took shape, I was always amazed to see how something that had seemed like just an ordinary plank became an integral part of our daily lives. As I grew older, I recall helping him by lending a hand.
My sister, with her feminine and delicate nature, didn’t find much interest in such work, but I was deeply influenced, even dreaming at one point of following in my father’s footsteps to become a carpenter. Unlike cold, lifeless materials like metal or cement, wood was once a living being. Traces of that life remained intact throughout its entire being, carrying a warmth that seemed to breathe in harmony with our lives.
My sister often said she couldn’t trust wood because it burned too easily, but I found that very weakness made it all the more appealing. Humans, too, cannot withstand fire for long. Living alongside wood, sensitive to moisture and heat like us, somehow felt deeply human and familiar. Wood, imperfect like us, drew me closer; the similarity of living by understanding and compensating for each other’s weaknesses felt especially warm.
Looking back now, I realize that during that growth process, I learned not just a love for wood, but also an attitude toward life from my father. Like wood—firm yet gentle, flawed yet endearing—I too began to harbor the desire to grow into someone who harmonizes with the world.
School Days
During my school years, I enjoyed following my father around and learning about wood—gaining knowledge and the know-how born from his long experience—far more than studying formulas, vocabulary, or problem-solving at school. Sitting in a classroom listening to repetitive lessons was less interesting than standing beside my father, shaping materials together, and following the grain of the wood to create form.
My mother wished both my sister and me would go to the city, graduate from university, and become stable office workers. Perhaps because of this, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed by my inclination. Yet, I found immense pleasure in listening to my father’s stories about the countless types of wood, their uses, and the significance wood holds in our daily lives.
The scent of wood in my father’s workshop, the feel of air mingled with sweat and sawdust, even the wood dust that coated my hands all day long—these were familiar and welcome to me. Coming home covered in sawdust after work felt less like hardship and more like a badge of a day well spent. Those ordinary days were simply joyful and something I was grateful for.
However, my parents wanted my sister and me to gain diverse knowledge and experiences in a wider world, and to live more stable lives than they had. So, around middle school, I left the countryside to continue my studies in the city, following my parents’ wishes. The rural village where we lived with my parents had few children, making the educational environment inadequate. Moving to the city for a better education was an unavoidable choice.
My mother lived with us in the city to manage our daily lives, returning to the house where my father lived every weekend. I too would occasionally return to the countryside home to help my father with his work and recall memories of the past. But seeing me like that, my father would say, “Now is not the time to limit your own potential. Focus on your studies. You absolutely must finish college.”
It was around that time I began to realize that a vague dream of becoming a carpenter wasn’t enough. So, I had to throw myself into my studies late in the game, set out to find my path, and leave the familiar world behind to adapt to a new one. Leaving the workshop filled with the scent of wood and sitting down at a desk wasn’t easy, but all the experiences from that time became precious foundations that shaped who I am today.
Looking back, that time was pure; it was when I first realized learning wasn’t confined to textbooks. Those years of learning about the world through wood and learning life’s attitude through my father remain deeply within me. Even now, when I smell wood, the warm air of the workshop and my father’s heavy touch come to mind.
Personality Introduction
I am someone who strives to pay attention to the myriad things within our living environment, rather than taking it for granted. As a child, my desire to inherit the life and spirit of my father, a carpenter, was strong, and for a long time, I lived deeply captivated solely by wood. However, when I came to the city to pursue higher education, I gradually realized how narrow my perspective had been.
The world had already achieved dazzling progress, far beyond relying solely on wood, and it yearned for structures that could maintain their solidity unchanged over long ages. Building materials and construction methods had also advanced dramatically in step with this trend. While this might have been an everyday reality for those born and raised in the city, it was a profound shock to me, who had been trapped by the prejudice that “you cannot feel close to something unless you breathe with nature.”
As a child, I dreamed of becoming a carpenter like my father, building homes that breathed with people. But my dream gradually shifted toward creating ‘sustainable and sturdy homes’ that kept pace with the world’s changes. To broaden my focus beyond wood alone, I studied various construction methods and materials on my own, immersing myself deeply in this evolving current. While a life lived quietly in nature’s embrace is beautiful, I became convinced that architecture suited to the fierce, dynamic urban life of today is the world I truly wish to explore.
Through this process, I envisioned a career path not merely as a profession, but one where I could develop alongside people’s lifestyles and spaces. Between the warm memories from my father and the changes the world demands, I seek to find my own balance.
Life Philosophy
Do not become overly immersed in your own world; respond with an open mind to external stimuli and change.
Growing up watching my father work as a carpenter, I developed my own preconceptions about architecture. Even as research and technology advanced to enhance building durability with changing times, I refused to pay attention. I even viewed such changes as undermining tradition and went through a period where I didn’t even try to understand them.
Had I stayed in the countryside, I might have continued believing that living in harmony with nature was the purest and most correct way, harboring the prejudice: ‘Why live so complicatedly in buildings made with chemicals that could be harmful to the body?’
But after coming to the city and encountering diverse people and environments, my perspective completely shifted. People weren’t just building efficient structures; they were developing and utilizing new building materials for healthier, more sustainable lives. Efforts to pursue eco-friendly living, along with the various experiments and attempts to make it possible, were unfolding everywhere in the city. Only then did I fully understand my father’s sincere desire to show me a wider world.
Since then, I’ve actively begun diving into fields I had previously ignored or overlooked. The desire to learn what I didn’t know, the attitude of breaking down preconceptions and embracing new knowledge, led me to my current path.
Moving forward, I intend to live a life of continuous learning and growth, embracing diverse perspectives without leaning too heavily in any one direction. The world is vast, and there will always be worlds I haven’t seen.
Motivation for Application and Future Aspirations
Food, clothing, and shelter are essential elements of human life, always at the center of social concern. Especially as the population steadily increases and many people gather to live in the limited space of cities, the efficiency and practicality of living spaces are becoming increasingly important. Accordingly, the field of architecture has also developed in a much more sophisticated and systematic way than in the past. Moving beyond simply processing and assembling existing materials, a system has been established where materials are designed and custom-manufactured to fit the form of the building. This has become a core competitive advantage in today’s construction industry.
Growing up in a quiet rural village during my childhood, I naturally developed an affection for traditional building materials like wood. Though the environment was simple and unassuming, it nurtured my interest in the essence of architecture. However, upon moving to the city, I came to understand the necessity of urban architecture that efficiently responds to complex and diverse environments. I realized cities possess their own distinct survival mechanisms. The architectural systems built to safely, conveniently, and efficiently accommodate people provided me with a new perspective and motivation.
In this context, I have developed a deep interest in your company, which has been at the forefront of urban architecture, performing comprehensive architectural tasks including construction, design, and management. I am confident that the rich experience and technical expertise your company has accumulated over many years will provide an invaluable foundation for growth, especially for someone like me who still has much to learn. In particular, your company’s philosophy of realizing people-centered spaces and expanding the possibilities of cities aligns deeply with my career direction.
Therefore, I have decided to apply, driven by a desire to gain practical experience within your company’s systematic work environment and further refine my knowledge and capabilities. I aim to absorb your expertise in contributing to efficient space utilization and technological advancement, enabling people to enjoy richer and more comfortable lives within urban spaces concentrated with transportation and culture. I aspire to grow into a professional who can realize this value in future practical settings.
My goal extends beyond merely participating in tasks; I aim to sincerely understand and internalize your company’s philosophy and vision, transforming into an architectural professional capable of responding flexibly to an evolving era. Ultimately, I sincerely hope to contribute to realizing a future where cities, people, and spaces harmonize.
