Blog Post 4 : Future Thinking

    After learning a lot about caring for mental and physical health, I plan to do more work on my physical health actually. The past two years have been practicing quite a bit on mental health and techniques like meditation or self reflection. However, I feel as though I have neglected my physical health quite a bit and could do with setting up an exercise regiment, eating healthier, and finding time to not be just sitting in a chair all day. Physical health can be both a reflection as well as a driver of poor mental health.

    My career goals, I wouldn't say have shifted but they did evolve with having been more informed of choices after university. It has been a long time and I remember going into college thinking I was going to be a programmer at some upstart company working in their basement all day. Now, I am much more focused on having a career either in research or lab work, hopefully with a focus in genetics. So I think the change has been rather drastic, and I've grown as a person, which I feel is reflected in my better mental health.

    The best advice I can give to any STEM student is to never ignore your mental state. It is not a nuisance, it is an indicator that says a lot about what you need or want during the semester. If you're having poor mental health or physical health, always ask yourself why? Is the work hard? Answer: How can I get help with the work, is there tutoring? Do you feel alone and left out? Answer: Figure out how you can connect with others in your class or field. Just because Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM) tends to be about solving problems of a more quantitative nature does not mean we get to ignore ourselves like we're robots.

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