Life as an engineering major is a beautiful whirlwind of activity, full of design teams, research, interesting classes, and being surrounded by amazingly driven people. However, there is a reason everyone else looks at you with a little bit of fear in their eyes when you tell them you’re an engineering major. Whether you’re fighting the good fight in physics class, working to balance extracurriculars and coursework, or writing that essay you forgot about for your general education class, being an engineering student can quickly become very stressful.
In order to survive in engineering, without becoming the quintessential frazzled engineering student, it is super important to find ways to relax and do something completely unrelated to engineering! And no, doom scrolling doesn’t count. For me, that thing is crochet!
Crocheting is the way that I have chosen to take time for myself and take a step back from the craziness of a difficult major. And, this hobby has the added benefit of slowly adding little crocheted octopi, dragons, bunnies, and more to my friends and I’s dorms! As the semester progresses, I make sure to routinely take time to find a new pattern, put on some music, and crochet a new little friend. Afterwards, I’m always so much happier and ready to jump back into life at USC Viterbi.
Of course, I’m not recommending that every Viterbi student decide to pick up some yarn and learn crochet. But my biggest piece of advice to every current (and future!) engineering Trojan is to find your equivalent of learning to crochet. Maybe for you that’s painting, or running, or origami, or rollerblading, or staring at a wall while listening to music, or a million other possibilities. No matter what it is, find something relaxing that you love to do completely unrelated to engineering. This way, when you go back to your life as an engineer, you can continue loving it, and maybe even have a new crocheted bunny to help cheer you on!
