Travelling to learn: three months at University College London

Over the years I have travelled a lot, whether it was for simple holidays or for my studies. Especially with my photographer's mindset, it was a delight to go to all of these beautiful places: the vibrant colours and hills of the new. However, browsing through my pictures, even if there was an aesthetic pleasure to them, would make me dissatisfied after a while. I would realise that the beauty of travel left me empty, probably because I didn't get enough out of it that felt meaningful: didn't have long talks with local strangers, didn't learn about the culture per se...  In short: I didn't feel like it had a purpose, nor serendipitous encounters, that enlightened me. I have always been an experience seeker over a materialistic dreamer, but the more I travelled, the more I wanted my experiences to be for the sake of meaning, in the form of development. I'm addicted to personal and intellectual growth.

This addiction drove me to where I am now: London. Or to be more precise: University College London (UCL). I emphasise this fact because after three months of being in London, really most of what I've seen is the university. This may sound sad to many but to me it is a delight, because that was my purpose of coming here: a postgraduate diploma in Behaviour Change and the opportunity to reinvent myself through extracurriculars. For me, it is a last chance to be a fulfilling student before entering the career world. Whilst extending my studies here and there has been fun and crucial (I still consider my last gap year one of the most important tipping points in my career view), I can't stay a student forever. Yet, whilst I am a student, I should fully utilise it.

Thus, I didn't come to London to travel, if interested in what London is like as a city, check out my blog post from three year ago. For this post, I want to emphasise on something else: how I came to London to learn. And boy, did I learn.

Whilst in London, I have mostly been discovering various libraries at UCL.

What I learned through academics

Academically speaking, I have needed to employ a whole shift of mindset in my programme at UCL. From experience, I know that switching between a designer's and engineer's mindset is doable, even stepping into the shoes of a marketeer, communication specialist or business person is something I could imagine. Getting into a social scientist's mindset, however, is a whole other challenge. I don't speak the language, don't have any basic background knowledge nor any experience with their way of working. It is stressful at times, but also exhilarating - as if I am diving into a whole new (academic) tribe, being an anthropologists that gets close to the community to learn.

I learned about everything you'd expect from a course: new knowledge, new skills, new tools. The first term has just ended, leaving me with the psychological knowledge and scientific rigour I have always craved.

Knowledge-wise, I learned about: behaviour change theories and models; ways in which our social cognition and motivation is affected; research designs and various domain-specific behaviour change interventions.

As for tools and skills, I am learning how to be a dwarf in a cave: being in a focused state and setting, mining away at literature, synthesising it into diamonds. I have always been more of a hands-on learner, so purely learning through texts, lectures and discussions is something I still have to get used to. The art of desk research is something I have always wanted to master, and I am slowly getting better at collecting papers more effectively, reading more quickly, and how to analyse them better and pulling it all together.

However, what has been the most significant learning point was the self-reflection, triggered from contrast. Everything they teach here at UCL, is clearly coming from an evidence or a theory-based rationale. I like think that the more you learn about others, the more you learn about yourself. Being here has taught me to step back and look at myself during the past five academic years: what is a designer, who am I as a designer, how do I work as a designer, what can I (as a designer) bring to the table, how does this differ from people from other disciplines, how does my design background merge with my current behavioural change education? I have been evolving. Designers get very close to the people they research and employ untraditional, explorative ways to dig into their thoughts and desires. It leads to novelty. On the other hand, social scientists are much more systematic and can anchor their findings to theory. This leads to articulate findings with a clear pathway. Both have their own pros and cons, and I am still in the process of finding out how to combine the two. 

I managed to create my design portfolio website not so long ago, which made me reframe who I was: a research-driven designer with an interdisciplinary mindset that communicates through multiple forms. My multifaceted way of communication is truly something I learned from my bachelor's/master's in design. The research part is simply engraved in my personality, something that I am only now chiselling into a refined entity through UCL. Interdisciplinarity is something that is evident from my whole educational experience, from Delft to Sydney, Aachen and London... I have always found myself a strange duck amongst the swans, waddling through murky waters, but learning to swim forth anyway despite being in unfamiliar territory. No matter how new a subject is to me, I somehow always manage to go through and that is something I attribute to my wide-spanning curiosity and never ending motivation to learn. 

Hard work pays off: I am slowly understanding myself better as a designer.

What I learned through extracurriculars 

Prioritise, be strategic and know your purpose. Before coming to London, I knew it was a city that was abundant in opportunities. Even UCL itself is overflowing with it. It would be easy to get distracted or to take on more on my plate than necessary. To avoid this, I made a priority list before departure, something I could look back on and to keep reminding myself why I came to London. First on the list was of course to get the Behaviour Change diploma, it is something I do not want to stray from. Surprisingly, dancing and having fun came after. For those that know me, that's mind-blowing. I always strive for meaning in life, doing things for the sake of fun doesn't appease me in the long term. However, I have learned from pushing myself too much in the past. Prioritising my mental health is something new for me, but necessary. Going to dance class every week keeps me energised. I even auditioned for a contemporary dance and hip hop show. Although I didn't get in, I was proud for trying because I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. One of the beauties of dance is learning how to let go of your ego and accepting failure as a driver to keep going. 

The next points on my list were much more 'me', they related to creating a social impact. I won't say that I am changing the world here at UCL, but at least I am working on things I believe in, such as sustainability and climate action through education. I have been part of the UCL Climate Action Society since the beginning of term and have also been involved with organising an event: the Sustainability in our City Conference. I am learning how to think of the bigger picture whilst being meticulous about details (e.g. in event management but also organisational/operational tasks), how to engage with people from truly diverse backgrounds (experiences, academics, ethnicity), how to speak up much more and when to step back and let go as well. What matters most, though, is that I am engaging in activities I think are important. 

Some people say that I am always on the go and they wonder how I manage to do it all. I suppose I have been learning how to plan (see image below). It looks daunting and as if I am doing a lot, but really I am just logging everything to keep myself sane. I also colour-code, especially making sure there is balance between types of activities during normal weeks, but focus during intense weeks. 

To be honest, this is very new to me. Back in Delft, I did not have the luxury of doing things beside my studies due to personal struggles and intense contact hours. Here at UCL, there is much more flexibility in planning due to its very few contact hours. Mind you, I do find the coursework challenging at UCL, but I learned to anticipate it and spread it out. Hence, much of my colourful tiles (yellow, pink, purple, dark blue) represent moments to keep me on track with coursework aside from the necessary every-day commitments (lectures and practicalities in light blue). However, I always make sure to sprinkle enough green (student society work) and lilac (healthy things for the mind such as fun activities or career related events/tasks) throughout the month.

Quire frankly, I think I can aim for much more quantity and quality, and I am hoping that next term will be more filled and colourful. I want to be on top of my reading but I also feel like I can increase my commitment to meaningful causes. The society work is there as I am contributing to the awareness creation of sustainability issues, but another love of mine has always been mental health. Fingers crossed that I get into those opportunities of impact, even if it means taking down some of my lilac tiles. 

What I learned through living on my own

I learned to take care of myself, both physically and mentally, it's as simple as that. 

Physically speaking, this former couch potato walks at least one hour each day (hitting more than 10k steps has become a habit) as I am walking almost everywhere. Then there's the occasional dancing, jogging and doing yoga. I am also spoiling myself crazy with food, eating even self-cooked warm meals for lunch. Whilst I make very simple meals, it makes me happy because cooking is a very relaxing activity to me, I have learned to experiment a lot more, and knowing there's always self-made food out there is very satisfying. Don't even get me started on the joys of bulk-cooking: having emergency meals in the freezer for lazy days. I am also very happy with the way I cut down on my meat consumption the last three months: I probably just eat meat once or twice a week these days.

Even simple food makes me very happy already.

As for mental health, a big part of it is filling my weeks with enough to get me into routine but also a lot of flexibility and a variety in each necessity (coursework, classes, extracurriculars, socialising, events, practicalities). Another big thing is to realise who and what is good for me. I know who I can count on and whom not to have expectations from, but at the same time I realise more than ever how to take responsibility for my own mental health by counting on myself. 

The view so far

I have familiarised myself with new territories, in many ways. It was a good exploration, but next term it's time to get more 'on it'. I want to focus more deeply and keep reminding myself of the purpose behind everything I do. When I'm studying, it's not for the grades, it is because I genuinely want to gain more knowledge about the behavioural sciences and also adopt their way of thinking and working. With my committee work, I am doing this because I believe in the 'practice into purpose' mindset, since being engaged in sustainability projects and activities was what made me care more for the climate too. I need to keep reminding myself that that's why I joined and being able to communicate this to our community is a blessing. As for volunteering, it is because I am starting to realise that system level changes in mental health care are difficult, so are products/services that put the responsibility in the hands of those who are mentally ill. What they need is support and a listening ear, the feeling that someone cares for them, and I think that being a volunteer there is going to be much more impactful even if it will just help a handful of individuals.

I've climbed a lot these three months and only just now had the time to look over the view from above. Now it's time to get back down again with focus: it is time for a deep dive.