We all belong here.

When I began my first position in the construction industry, I was one of only three females in the office and also among the youngest employees. This made it challenging to establish meaningful connections with my colleagues. Consequently, I had to navigate not only the complexities of starting my professional career but also the specific barriers inherent to the industry.

There were several moments that felt particularly isolating, especially given that many of my friends and family had limited understanding of my career aspirations. Upon securing my role as an Estimator, I often encountered the question, ""What does that mean?"" Explaining my role in a way that resonates with those outside the construction field proved difficult, which hindered my ability to brainstorm solutions to various challenges.

Another notable experience was during an end-of-financial-year celebration, where I found that none of the directors resembled me. This raised questions about whether my interests would be genuinely considered.

Fortunately, during my time in my role, I have witnessed a positive shift in the office's diversity, with a significant increase in the representation of women and younger employees. Including more females in senior positions. Additionally, I have connected with organizations focused on mentoring individuals in similar roles, which has greatly enhanced my professional network and sense of belonging within the industry.

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I was homeschooled until grade 8, when I joined my local public school ahead of my peers in science and English but behind them in social skills. I’m in my second year of university now, with a life full of friendships and love, but I look back at my younger self and I still cannot understand what I did wrong that left me so alone. Maybe I’m grateful. To some extent, my inability to make friends in high school left me with only academics to confide in. Without friends to spend time with at recess or lunch, I would sit outside my next classroom and get ahead with the work. Once, some nice girls walked past me and swore I was more hardworking than any of our classmates, but I didn’t believe them. I didn’t feel hardworking.

It was just all I had.

Me and my brother experienced a similar situation, but for some reason he took to socialising better than me. In senior high school, he shared with me his newest epiphany – “Even if you’ve never met them before, always talk like you’ve had one conversation before.” This stuck with me, a way to make first conversations less awkward. One time, I arrived late to my social studies class because I had been running errands for an extracurricular project and found my usual table unusually empty. Instead, there was a new student easily chatting away at a different table. I decided to be brave and joked about how lonely I was and asked if I could sit with them. From there, I used my brother’s advice and kept talking to this new student, who didn’t have any preconceptions about my shyness from previous weeks. Here was an opportunity to be someone else.
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I believe that was a catalyst for learning how to make friends and not be so lonely. I learned to seek out connect, invite people to spend time together, and talk with new people like we had already had a conversation.

Aisha, 20

Here is my visual art which I created for Menzies Foundation. It is entitled the Power of One. It depicts loneliness in a positive light by enabling us to see the world afresh (as symbolised by the sunrise) and free from the physical distraction as symbolised by the detachment of the head from the body.

In my first year of uni, moving across the country from New Zealand to Australia, it was a very scary and nerve-racking experience for me, especially leaving home and family for the first time, as I am someone who is very family-oriented and very close to my family. Even though my 2 best mates from high school also decided to move to Melbourne with me and the 3 of us all attending the University of Melbourne, I think we were all trying to make new connections, try new things, and meet new people. But I felt lonely because I felt like I had not found my group of people that I vibe with, and it felt like everyone around me already had a friend group.

On instagram, all I would see are people hanging out, going on trips together, and I just felt that I never had that. Living at a residential college away from my old friends, we drifted a bit, and while I made new friends living at a college who were so kind and lovely, I always felt like I wasn’t completely myself and I didn’t really fit in. It was something that I felt like no one really understood and I felt really alone about, because I was surrounded by people, but I still felt really alone.

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