Reflections
What do you see as the most important aspect(s) of keeping your mental health in a good state?
What I see as the most important aspect of keeping my mental health in a good state is to always strive for a balance within my academic and social life. I like to surround myself with people that make me happy and feel heard but also take alone time to do things that I know are beneficial for myself. One thing I’ve also noted is that sometimes I forget to keep a more optimistic outlook and grateful mindset but reminding myself to do so from time to time helps. My mantra now is to take each day at a time as stressing too much about the future puts too much of a heavy burden on my mind. Lastly, what keeps my mental health in a good state is actually feeling like I’m doing good service to others. I feel a huge sense of reward when I feel like I can make a positive impact on someone’s day and I try to do so when I can.
What are you looking forward to in regards to life outside of school?
What I’m looking forward to in regards to life outside of school is to hopefully be able to go back home during winter break. As I’m an international student from Singapore, COVID-19 alongside all the travel restrictions have made it incredibly hard for me to be able to go home and I have not gone back for what would be a year now. I can’t wait to see my parents and hopefully reunite with my high school friends.
What is something that drives you and motivates you everyday?
This is a great question and something I genuinely have not thought too much about. However, it is very in line with my answer above. I know that something that drives me and motivates me everyday is the fact that I’m in another country without my family and hence I know that I need to stay accountable for myself and the decisions that I make - I want to have a sense of integrity to my studies, activities and make progress towards the goals I want to achieve.
What are the issues that you think need to be talked about more in regards to mental health, in general, at BU, or any other group?
One of the biggest issues that I think need to be done regarding mental health at BU is the fact that there is always so much “sugar-coating” and empty words that result in no action and accountability from BU. BU has yet to address the mental health crises’ that have happened on campus and this makes me, as part of the student body, feel that I don’t matter at all. The fact that from the COVID-19 pandemic till now, there has been such a large increase in students suffering with depression yet so little staff to be able to help students out is incredibly frustrating. I know that getting the right resources is incredibly hard for many students, including myself, especially through SHS and will often have to look for outside sources. I think another large part of the issue is BU’s inability to form more community-based events so that students feel like they can form connections with other students. Lastly, it's the way that the academic workload and assessments are made to overwhelm and often discourage students rather than lift them up, from what I see.