2* — FI… NAL…LY!
Now I have the stage. Captain said I should keep it short. We’ll see.
Apparently, a few observations have been circulating.
Let’s review the charges, shall we?
“Véronique has multiple personalities.”
Excellent. We’re making progress already.
We call them ‘Architypes.’ Not Archetypes, they belong to Carl Jung. Architypes sprouted from the mind of an architect. Moi.
In reality I have 11,324 ‘personalities’.
11,329 if YU count the gatekeepers. But that’s another story.
Just nine of them made it into The Story of YU. The others are still auditioning.
Most people call them thoughts, or inner voices. Or intuition.
I simply gave mine names. Because once YU give something a name, it becomes much harder for it to hide.
Some of them push us forward. Some of them hold us back. Some tell us we’re brilliant. Some tell us we’re idiots. And sometimes they are absolutely right.
“She’s almost 50 and perimenopausal.”
Also correct. Which means my patience for nonsense has become highly selective.
She never even wanted to become an architect!
Correct! By the way, where did YU get that information?
My father was a contractor. He used to say architects were a bunch of idiots. Or as we say in Antwerp : ‘Peewees’.
His words. Not mine. Well… mostly his.
And if they could do it, surely I could too. So he convinced me to study architecture.
Which is ironic. Because he spent half his life complaining about architects.
Back in those days, his company worked on public housing projects in Antwerp. Every 2-3 years, another building block was renovated. Often the very same building blocks.
And every time… the same mistakes showed up in the tender files. The same discussions. The same extra costs.
Nobody seemed interested in asking why those mistakes kept reappearing.
My father never understood that.. Neither did I. But now YU understand why he called them peewees.
Maybe that’s where it started : My allergic reaction to wasting public money on the same mistake more than once.
Anyway… that’s not the point.
I originally wanted to become a heart surgeon. Then a brain surgeon. Or both. Why choose?
Looking back, I suppose I just became both. Just not in the way I expected.
Today I’m using Architecture to operate on hearts and brains.
Just not with scalpels. But with spaces, light, beauty. With wonder.
With the strange idea that the places we inhabit shape the people we become.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Although, compared to spending public money on fixing the same mistakes over and over again, I seem perfectly reasonable.
That crazy woman thinks she can solve my burnout with architecture!
Not with architecture. That would be ridiculous.
With YUGENING Architecture. With a capital A.
The kind that focuses on restoring what we’ve been quietly losing : Meaning. Connection. Beauty. Belonging.
Architecture just happens to be my weapon of choice. And we happen to be very good at it.
The difference? YUGENING Architecture doesn’t stop at buildings.
It zooms out. It asks bigger questions.
Questions about PURPOSE. Questions about what makes people come alive.
That’s exactly how I ended up creating MindMarks.
Because burnout doesn’t start in buildings. It starts when people lose sight of who they are.
What they love. What they’re here to do. What makes them jump out of bed in the morning.
The right Architecture can support that.
But eventually every road leads back to the same question:
What is your MindMark?
She’s making a Couture show out of Architecture!
Guilty. Life’s too short for beige.
She always talks about energy frequencies?!
Absolutely. I believe people on the same frequency tend to find each other.
Some call it energy vibration. Or resonance. Or serendipity. (beautiful world by the way)
Some call it YinYangPingPong.
Doesn’t matter how YU call it.
They usually find each other long before they understand why.
She’s traumatized because of what happened during the SHIFT competition.
Absolutely. That’s what happens when a question refuses to leave YU alone. It keeps asking.
Until YU become the answer.
Please tell me YU’ve figured that out by now.
Or did YU really think I was going to solve the world’s problems all by myself?
I can’t even find my car keys half the time.
No. The point of a MindMark isn’t that I find the answer.
The point is that YU recognize your own.
Your own Curiosity. Your own Courage. Your own Compass. And yes, your Inner Critic.
Your own passion. Your own piece of the puzzle.
I’m merely clearing a path. So YU can find yours.
Please tell me YU already understood that.
Otherwise we’re going to have to endure another sixteen newsletters from Captain.
And trust me…
YU really don’t want that.
Any further statements?
No?
Excellent. My turn.
Well. I can tell YU this. If everybody had always shown integrity and empathy… Courage would never have needed to show up. Hell, I would probably never have existed.
So from the bottom of my heart:
Thank YU.
For every challenge that forced me to grow.
For every closed door that pushed me toward a different one.
Every challenge became part of the journey. Every obstacle became part of the map.
I wouldn’t change a thing.
See YU around.
****
Hi guys!
How YU doing?
The name is Nikki ‘O. With an ‘O, yes.
From Outcast. Orphan. Oh Hell No. Or just Out of Control. Pick your choice.
I’m Architype 2*: Courage.
I showed up the moment my twin sister Compassion got mistaken for weakness one too many times.
And trust me. This isn’t about me.
It’s about YU.
The black sheep. The empaths. The caregivers. The outsiders. The ones carrying wounds nobody sees.
The ones who learned to stay quiet just to keep the peace. The ones who were called difficult for having boundaries. Weak for remaining kind.
Until one day YU realize you’ve become everybody else’s safe place… Except your own.
I see YU.
Because Compassion, empathy and sensitivity are not weaknesses.
They’re strengths. The mistake is thinking they aren’t.
People think Courage means not being afraid. Bullshit.
Courage means being afraid and speaking anyway.
Breaking the cycle when repeating it would be easier.
Refusing to hand your wounds to the next generation.
Maybe YU were never the problem. Maybe YU were just the pattern breaker.
See this Daruma?
In Japan, YU fill in one eye when YU make a wish. The second eye only gets filled in when that wish comes true. And then YU burn it as a sign of gratitude.
For me, it means something a little different.
I filled in the second eye the day I stopped waiting for permission. And gave it to myself : Permission to go on a quest. For an answer to a question that wouldn’t leave me alone.
A question called SHIFT.
I gave myself permission to trust an idea that sounded completely insane, to follow a path nobody could explain.
That quest became From Landmark to Mindmark.
That Mindmark became nine Architypes. Nine inner voices living inside all of us.
Some whispering fear, some demanding courage, some keeping us small.
Some reminding us who we were meant to become.
Over the last year, those Architypes helped me recognize my own voice.
And once YU find your voice… Silence is no longer an option.
Because once YU see something, YU can’t unsee it.
As an architect, I see it every day. The greenwashing. The well-washing. The performance.
The stories that sound good. But change nothing.
The gap between what people are promised and what they actually experience.
I’m done looking away.
Maybe YU have spent years waiting for permission too.
Permission to speak. To take up space. To be exactly who YU are.
So consider this your green light.
Fill in the second eye.
And when YU finally get there…
Set the damn thing on fire.
Because nobody is responsible for your dreams but
YU.
Nikki ‘O
***** ***** *****
***** MINI YUGI CRISIS MEETING *****
PRESENT :
Miss Sabotage
Captain V
📸 SB
SUBJECT : Risk Management Nikki 'O
1- Captain... I'm afraid Nikki 'O is not showing her true colors here. Far TOO well-behaved, TOO filtered. This is not the real Nikki 'O.
3- I've noticed that too.
📸- I suspect she's trying to appear socially acceptable, only to suddenly release the Kraken when nobody is paying attention.
3- That was my concern as well.
Put her behind a paywall. Substack or something.
📸- Already working on it.
3- Perfect. Have a great weekend!