Two Years Down, 2 more to go

Caption: Me participating in an Essence team building camping activity, organised by Essence Events Manager 2021-22.

By Nisalyna Bontiff

3-minute read

And just like that, the second year of the study is over. I don’t know about you, but my head is in a whirlwind when I think about how quickly the time has passed. Nevertheless, this year was exciting, to say the least. Not only did I get to explore some of Europe’s cities, but I also realised that there is beauty in just enjoying the moments. I ended up doing 2 challenging yet, exciting projects (Project Resource Management in a Circular Economy and Project Zero Emission Factory). Don’t say you heard it from me, but these are the best projects in the programme’s second year! No shade to the soil quality/ soil science lovers…

On a serious note, though, I feel like I was building on my knowledge from the first year with most of the courses we did. It was fun to face mass balance monsters and overcome them. It was also interesting to learn how a Sankey Diagram works and then later create one for the project. After doing these projects, I noticed my eyes sparkle for resource management and circular process transitions. It makes sense when I reflect on this since it was a smaller-scaled but similar project that led me to choose ESSET.

Besides this, I also learned a lot during my time as the treasurer of ESSENCE. Firstly, being a treasurer is hard work. I know, I know, I was supposed to assume it would be hard work from the jump, but I didn’t. No clue why I thought I was invincible. In any case, I think I did my best; if anything I learned how to better manage my own personal finances.

But in all honesty, the best part of my second year was travelling. I got to visit some of my friends’ hometowns through their eyes which was even better than visiting those countries on my own. Although I would love to tell you every detail of my experiences, I will settle with just showing you some of my favourite parts. In the words of Albert Einstein, “one picture is worth a thousand words.” (swipe to see the pictures)

As you can see, it was an exciting year, to say the least. I am hyped to see what the next academic year will bring, but before that, I am so ready to take on the summer! Hope you enjoyed this school year as much as or more than I did, and let me know in the comments what your summer plans are! Until next time my friends.