Halfway-There Stage 1 Update

Goodness me, it’s been a busy time. Between work, study, bridesmaid duties (yes, going to see Scotland win against Wales in Cardiff is a duty that I simply had to fulfil), and resolving to run the Seville Half-Marathon next January, I have simply been busy. Lucky for me I thrive where there is structure and challenge, especially those things that matter to me.

At the heart of it all: my degree. Study has been interesting, as we have gotten more into the design aspects of the course. More about the design process, what design really means in an engineering context, and how to put it all together in a reported cardboard-box-and-tin beam-building activity.

From top left: the structure of the beam; the beam pre-test; the beam mid-test; the resulting weight.

The work recently has been wordy, and a lot of the maths we have used has been stuff I already know from my maths module, so it’s been easy-going for engineering. What I’ve particularly enjoyed is the structured thinking behind design. Breaking down a problem, identifying constraints, testing assumptions, and refining solutions, it plays to both my analytical mindset and my creativity, and helps me realise how comfortable I am working within a framework while still thinking independently.

Maths on the other hand. Well. I’ve never been very good at differentiation and integration and that really comes across in my earlier exercises. I think my main mental barrier is that I don’t see its use. I love engineering, and civil in particular, because it’s making maths visual, it makes it real. Pure maths is just that: pure. I know how we can use differentiation and integration in real life, I know its uses, but when I am given a graph with no context it’s just.. numbers. What this has shown me, though, is that I’m very aware of how I learn best. I need application, context, and purpose, and when those aren’t immediately visible, I now know that it’s my responsibility to create that connection for myself rather than disengage.

I have had a breakthrough in the maths department though. I did this with Advanced Higher English too, where I just found a formula for getting good marks and stuck with it. Academia requires one to remove oneself from the picture. And with maths, I have made it a mechanical process. No feelings of “ohhh no this looks scary there are so many surds and fractions how can I do it?!”, it’s just ok, here is the problem, let’s solve it. It looks complex but is it really? Follow the rules and ye shall succeed. I’m hoping that mantra gets me through the next 3 months of Essential Mathematics. And maybe the next engineering module too, I don’t quite know yet whether I need a mantra for that one or not.

Plaque in Bristol Temple Meads station

Speaking of making engineering real, I went on a hen do! What does that have to do with engineering and maths? You may think I am shirking study in lieu of rugby, but I’ll have you know that it was partially an educational excursion. Flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Bristol was the cheapest way to get to Cardiff, and do you know who designed the original Bristol Temple Meads station. Ya boy IBK. I had a supremely nerdy moment staring up at the roof structure of what now is a covered car park, but was once the original station designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I was getting looks, like “why is this girl smiling at a roof”. But it was worth it. And on the return journey, my dear school friend Jemma took me to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which has a museum! And perhaps more importantly, a gift shop. It was an incredible experience seeing it in real life, and made even more special by doing that thing that visitors do, where they make you realise you live in a really cool place, for Jemma. Moments like that remind me why I chose this path in the first place. Curiosity isn’t something you switch on for coursework, it’s how you naturally move through the world. I think that genuine enthusiasm for the built environment, for design, for history, is what will sustain me in this field long-term.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

I think IBK deserves his own post and that shall be coming once I read his biography. Which comes after I finish this romantasy book. While most things are engineering, not everything has to be engineering.

Speaking of not-engineering, I have started up my first of 3 training blocks for the Seville Half-Marathon in January 2027. I’m starting off with a 5k improvement plan, working on speed, then it’s on to a 10k improvement plan, then summer break because who wants to run in 40ºC, then finally the big half plan. It’s been going well so far, I’m only 3 weeks into an 8-week block, but I can see I’m getting faster already. Keeping up the strength and conditioning is normally my issue - and the issue that ends up injuring me - but I’m motivated to keep it up. The things I’ll do to get a medal and a free t-shirt.

Alas, I have been occupied across the board. The end of the first engineering module will come to a close at the end of this month, the maths will continue, and a new engineering block will begin. And I will keep going.

On a run, committing, adapting, learning and keeping going.

Because ultimately, that’s what I do. I commit, I adapt, I learn, and I keep going.