No good presentation = You OUT!

Something happened this morning and pissed me off. Not because all my colleagues found that I didn't come home yesterday nor did I accidentally fall asleep in the office nor did they wake me up with a little splash of water. What annoyed me the most is when Angga told me that I would be presenting in front of Madam Devil today, right before I ate my breakfast. If only he had told me after I had eaten, then the taste of the chicken porridge wouldn't be as bitter as coffee without sugar

Oh yes, I've got not explained, about the large character in my story. Maybe you're wondering, who is "Madam Devil". The figure that makes me didn't have any appetite even after staying up all night? Maybe ordinary people haven't heard of her name, but the fact is... she is quite famous in the architectural world. Her real name is Anna Gunadi, 55 years old woman. A famous architect, with an artistic style, and a unique appearance. She owns Ruanna, the architectural firm where I work. To be honest, I want to work over here because of her big name. However, hearing stories from seniors, it seems that she is not an honest, kind boss. Check out her nickname, 'Madam Devil', if she is so kind, she might get another nickname like 'Madam Angel'.

However, in the professional world, she is a famous architect known as 'Indonesian Zaha Hadid', but as we all know, Anna Gunadi hates her own nickname. Well, probably the same situation, as well as when everyone called me Hermione Granger. I want to be known by my name and not by someone else's, although that title may have been assigned to me out of admiration. But hey, I'm not a wizard, at least if they want to give me a nickname, please call me, erg..., maybe Annabeth Chase, the clever demigod, the daughter of Athena in Percy Jackson's novels. Well, at least Annabeth still aspires to be an architect, not some wizard who gets something from a spell. Oh dear, my apologies to Harry Potter fans, it's not that I don't like the name Hermione, but, you know, the term between the architect and wizard is quite far far away, and for me, is Lil bit out of context, agree?

"Sandra, how are you? Are you ready for the presentation?" asks Ma'am Hana came to my desk.

"Getting ready, ma'am," I said, glancing over all the details on my laptop.

"Ok, Good…, good luck Sandra, I'm sure you can do it," said Ma'am Hana, patting my shoulder.

"Um, ma'am, may I ask something?"

"Yes, what's up?"

"May I know? From all the members of the team, Why did you choose me to make a presentation today?"

"Well, why is that?" asked Ma'am Hana. I know she was quite surprised by my question because of the expression on her face.

"Well, is not something important. But.. I'm just a little confused, I'm the most junior aka newbie in this team, and for the presentation in front of the Madam..., Uhm..., Madam Anna Gunadi, I think I still feel too... too... stupidly amateur for her?"

"Hahaha…" I heard Ma'am Hana laughing at my answer. "Oh, Come on, Sandra, you are too humble. I know, from the start. Almost 70 percent of this design, of an artist with the initials 'RR' house is your idea. It was your design. And I just want to give you a chance. You are the architect, so you go to present your work. So Simple, right? "

"Thank you, ma'am." I feel very touched to hear my Ma'am Hana's answer, but...

"It's okay, don't be nervous, prepare yourself well enough, then everything will be fine," said Ma'am Hana as she walked into her room.

I didn't expect Ma'am Hana to be so considerate of me to take the responsibility. From all the seniors of our team? Team? Oh, ok. I'm not explaining our team yet. And maybe this is the right time, so... I will tell you a story about my team. Team B, our team.

Since I was accepted to work at Ruanna, the name of this architectural firm, I was placed in Team B. The team was led by Ma'am Hana and almost all of its members were female. Only Dani and Edo, the two men are our drafters here. But apart from the two of them, our team contains super cool and fierce female architects. We even joked about changing our team's name, to Team Rose or Jasmine. Because we are all female. Well, If you've ever been on scouts, surely you know that the girls' group is named after a flower and the boy's group is named after an animal. Although I prefer our team being called 'Amazon Warriors'. But I'm 100% sure that either Dani or Edo will object to being included in the category of amazon women. Hahaha.

So… The total members of our team are 7 people, 2 drafters, 2 junior architects, Me and Lania who are two years older than me, 2 senior architects, Ms. Chien and Sri. And one more person, our kindest chairman, Ma'am Hana. Maybe you don't understand, what's the difference between junior, senior, and drafter. I will explain.

Drafters are only in charge of drawing. Juniors like me are also responsible for drawing too, but the difference with drafters, junior architects are allowed to make decisions in terms of design. And the senior architect does a lot of more complex buildings design and helps oversee junior architects' small projects.

Maybe I should explain this more. Small projects such as residential houses, shop houses, and rental offices, are junior architects' tasks, while the senior architects design more complex buildings such as hotels, apartments, and other projects worth a lot of money. But, still, we are a team, sometimes I help Ms. Chien and Sri, as well as those two who also help me and Nia.

Drawing..., drawing..., and drawing. Drawing is my daily life. Yup, architectural drawings are quite complicated and extraordinary. Maybe you are all only familiar with plans, facades, or sections. But believe me, our job is much more complicated than just that piece of drawing. Site plan drawings, block plans, 3-dimensional building perspectives, mechanical-electrical schemes, and of course the thing that Madam Devil pays most attention to are architectural detailed drawings.

Expert at making a good floor plan is an extraordinary ability, plus can make a catchy façade look is wow, especially if the building can be proven to be able to stand with the best proportions in a section drawing. But if you want to be a famous architect, the secrets are in the detailed drawings. Details of the stairs to the railings, details of the ceiling to the list of edges, Details of the door to the hinges. And if someone thought that being an architect was easy, then I would be the first person who punched them in the face. Do you know? That's the floor you step on every day, believe me, we draw each tile of ceramic so all the building workers can install it neatly.

We could have just copied and pasted all the details from another project, but according to the sacred motto in this firm, our careers will end if we do that. That's what it says on the big poster hanging on the wall, right in front of my cubicle desk. The only thing I saw while working hard was the words 'No New Idea = You OUT!'.

While looking at every letter on the poster, now I'm thinking about my fate. For some reason, now..., the quote letters have changed to 'No good presentation = You OUT!'. Hahaha, I know I lack sleep and do not eat enough nutritious food, but the cause of the hallucinations in my head is because I'm so scared. Believe it or not, my hands are cold as ice, and so are my brain.

"Hi, Hermione," called Lania aka Nia who just came to the office this morning.

"Hi Nia, Did you just visit the site?" I asked considering that Nia came quite late to the office today.

"That's right, Ah, so tired of going to check the construction building. Do you know what happens? There is all makes me feel hot. The weather is hot weather and the worse thing is, my heart full of hot flames from hell. Just so you know, dealings with contractors and builders can drive me crazy. You must know, they accidentally make slanted walls. The walls are not angled at 90 degrees. And the only thing that the contractor can do, is only blabber with a million reasons. Oh, God," said Nia as she lay down on her work chair.

"Well, that's bad. But, dealing with Madam Devil, can drive you, even more, crazier or not?" My lips shout without etiquette and unfortunately, Nia heard my words.

"Madam Devil?" she asked in surprise. "Eh, could it be that you are presenting the work today?"

I nodded weakly, my mouth almost saying an apology like what I did to Angga. I need more mental preparation if I became unemployed today. But luckily, before I did anything embarrassing, Nia hugged me first and she sobbed right on my back.

"Sandra...," she says, patting my shoulder. "I'm sorry if I am being a bad colleague and always bothering you while you working here.

"Hahaha, Oh, my... it turns out that Nia also thinks I will be fired today," I whispered to myself, raising my eyebrow and smiling resignedly.

"Oh, Nia. Please, Don't be like that! Sandra isn't Karen or any other newbie, after all, I'm sure her presentation will be successful today," said Sri who suddenly joined me at my cubicle table.

"Ka...Karen?" I asked confusedly.

"A new junior architect who has only worked for 2 months and was fired before you entered Ruanna," says Ms. Chien.

"Yup, Madam Devil kicked her out because both her presentation and the design were messy," continued Nia with her innocent face.

"Oh, my God, looks like I'll have to start looking around the job street app for a new job," my brain started to error.

"Oh, c'mon. Don't compare her to Karen, at least this newbie is much smarter and quite idealistic," continued Sri.

"It's ok to be an Idealist, but too much idealist is a big no-no," said Ms. Chien.

"Oh, Ms. Chien, why do you say that? Poor Sandra, she'll be nervous because of your words," Nia defended me.

Ms. Chien immediately took my hand and held it, as if she was trying to comfort me in her unique way. Anyway, if anything happened today, I will miss this squad very much. Team B is amazing.

"She's already nervous, her hands are cold as ice," replied Ms. Chien who didn't intend to comfort me but only felt the temperature of my hands. I don't blame Ms.Chien, she's the longest worker on our team, and I think she's tired of seeing a lot of people being fired by Madam Devil just because of an unsatisfactory presentation.

"Sandra, look. We've all experience presentations with Madam Devil. I know it's tough and scary. One thing you need to remember. If she asks something weird or asks for something a little... impossible to do. Don't ever answer right away. Listen carefully to what's her request and answer them according to your ability. Madam Devil is strict and fierce, but after all, she is a very artistic architect. The point is she loves good design, she likes good work. Whether complex or simple, whether sustainable or waste energy design, one thing she likes, is a good architectural design," says Ms. Chien encouraging me.

I nodded and give her a little smile. I looked at the architectural model I just made last night, and suddenly my confidence grew more and more. Madam Devil or not, I do have to finish the design that has been entrusted to me. To whoever I have to explain this design work, I still have to be confident in myself. I'm sure, this design is the best that I can make, and I'm sure this is environmentally friendly. I'm pretty sure our client will be satisfied. So, one thing that I have to do today... I will go to that room and impress Madam Devil. Yay, to Sandra... Yay... to me...