Simone Wylie

My name is Simone Wylie, I am in my second year of DLab, and I am curious about the world. I am passionate about design, the climate crisis, and human rights. My artifact is a representation of my past and current experiences. The past 10 weeks have been challenging. With remote learning and quarantine, everything feels out of place. For me, this time of solitude allowed my mental health to worsen. This fall has been incredibly taxing, and even the most mundane and simple tasks have felt overwhelming. How can I expect to help others if I can't even take care of myself? Though I have felt stuck and lost, my friends and family have been there to support me. I have learned that by taking care of myself, I am taking care of my community. By setting time aside to focus on me, I am allowing a future where I will be healthy enough to support the people around me. My artifact speaks to my experiences of loneliness in the past. And my current experiences of loneliness in quarantine. Loneliness is not equivalent to being alone. In a time of so much uncertainty and fear, I have found it’s easy to feel disconnected from the world around me. I feel broken when I think about how much I am struggling, and how badly I want to feel better. My heart breaks when I think about all the people struggling with mental health, and how many of them are without the resources I take for granted. I hope others will think about what they can do to take care of themselves, without feeling guilty or ashamed. I have grown a lot the past 10 weeks, and still have a lot more healing and growing ahead of me. During these weeks of self-discovery and reflection, I have begun to understand how important self-care and love is. I now know that regardless of what I pursue in life, my mental health will remain the priority.