One and a half months later and I am finally moving onto my second post. I did say I decided on part-time study to have more time available for myself, but I feel like the past couple months have taken up all of my spare minutes with my commitments. Many things have happened and I wanted to share my flow of thoughts but I feel that I needed to introduce myself further before I progressed with posts.

The following seven posts are what I wrote for Women in Engineering (WEN) during Mental Health Week. It was a tough challenge having to meet the deadline every day but it was such a rewarding experience to be a representative voice for WEN. I am hugely grateful for the support I received during the week and I also hope for those who read the following posts for the first time, these will serve as a threshold to indicate who I am, what I have, and what I do about them.

I hope you enjoy them!

1. Who am I?

Name: Naa-Eun Kim

Degree: Civil Engineering

Interests: Sustainability, project management

Hobbies: Socialising with friends, travelling, photography, playing music, and nail art

Dreams/Aspirations: As an engineer I wish to use my skills and knowledge to help people and society to a large scale that stretches beyond those who are in my immediate surroundings. Engineers are incredibly influential decision-makers in society, and therefore it is crucial that we make positive and beneficial decisions when finding solutions to projects. As resources are becoming scarcer we must aim for the efficient allocation of these resources to achieve our goals now, while maintaining values in the long term for our future generations to come. Therefore, I aspire to be an active influencer of sustainability to engineering practices within our society, helping to shape our world to be a better place to live in.

The words that come beyond this point are ones that I have played over and over in my head multiple times, as I wondered how to best word my story. I have kept this all to myself for the past 9 months, and now I finally have this wonderful opportunity to write these pieces.

A lot of my story happens to be about my physical health, however this is important as it also sets a crucial context for my experience with my mental health. So I am breaking down my walls to share this, for you all to read and to hopefully grasp an understanding of what depression is. Every person’s stories are different, so therefore it may be hard for you to grasp my specific experience, but I hope that it may be an influence to you in any possible way.

Next post: “What am I experiencing?“