I Once Was An Engineering Student

During a break between high school classes in Thailand, my friend shared his ambitious dream of changing the world with me. As a Sino-Thai boy who grew up with a family expectation that I become a doctor, I found the concept of dreams unfamiliar. Strangely, I found myself carrying his dream as if it were my own.

Nevertheless, I was not yet thinking about how to make it happen. Not until I got the idea from watching Iron Man blockbusters. I dreamt of becoming someone like Tony Stark, saving the world with physics and engineering. His remarkable intelligence and skills, as shown in the scene where he first built a suit prototype in a cave with limited resources and time, inspired me to start building and experimenting with a smoke bomb, which soon developed into a firework rocket.

I vividly remembered walking into a Chemistry teacher's room to consult my favorite teacher on how to build a smoke bomb. Reluctantly at first, but I managed to convince him to explain the formula in order to create a white smoke screen. I said for education. Then I began borrowing experimental equipment from the lab and started setting up my small lab in my homeroom. I sourced two main ingredients from the chemical shop and sugar from the cafeteria. Finally, I put up my first smoke bomb. Throughout the year, I had built countless iterations and burned from the classroom, bridge between buildings, to the largest hall in the school. Until my homeroom teacher put me on a break by acknowledging my mother about my project.

The curiosity in the weaponry brought me to a point where my teacher couldn’t teach me anymore. I browsed through the engineering degrees that would enable me to pursue this path. I found the Master of Engineering Program in Defense Engineering and Technology at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand's most prestigious engineering school.

My dream of becoming a doctor had been replaced by the dream of becoming an engineer. This fueled me through entrance exams and landed me at Chulalongkorn Engineering School, even though I almost ranked last.