Finding my place at UNSW

It was early 2020, and I was waiting for the 891 on Eddy Avenue. Seeing the giant line of students and academics equipped with backpacks and laptop cases upset the already hyperactive butterflies in my stomach. I wondered, what are they studying? What for? Will I be able to keep up with them? I hadn’t felt this type of anxiety since I started high school.  

The days go by, and I soon realised that the lecturers, tutors, Nucleus Hub staff and my peers were indeed, regular humans and managed to quench most of my worries. The first 4 weeks on campus were filled with such chaotic memories like eating half a watermelon with a plastic spoon with another EngSoc peer mentee and watching my PHYS1211 lab partner show up 20 minutes late to our labs every week.  

But of course, soon after, these experiences were cut short we were all thrown back into our homes and locked there intermittently for more than a year and a half.  

It’s been tough.  

The “first year fire” burnt out very quickly, and my Flexible First Year Engineering degree was becoming exponentially less flexible and exponentially more burdensome. With every term came course selections and with course selections came the inevitable questions. What am I studying? What for? Will I be able to keep up?  

But alas, a blessing in disguise came my way with my involvement in EngSoc and being the editor for the Student run newsletter – EngScope. While working on EngScope, I had the opportunity to talk and work with so many other engineering students from all sorts of societies and backgrounds. Whether it was a faculty affiliated society like CEUS or a Student Project group like Redback Racing, every fortnight I got to see all the events and opportunities they were holding, each one planned with so much care and organisation to make it work even online. It was truly inspiring to see fellow engineering students dedicate their time and efforts to create such meaningful and productive events for the rest of the community even during such a bleak and difficult time.  

With the year coming to a close, I can’t wait for 2022. I can’t wait to see all that the engineering community truly has to offer in 2022, to see all the people I’ve met without a screen between us, and maybe for the 5th week in my life, attend an in-person lecture :D.  

Thank you for all the support EngScope has gotten from the UNSW Engineering community.