Larissa’s story

Larissa did a three-day Grit programme in her first year at Nottingham Trent University.

I wasn’t handling it well. I’d never had to fend for myself before so, what with the academic, the domestic and the extra curricular, as well as everything being so new, it was all one big  jumble. I couldn’t keep up with it. But I was desperate to get uni RIGHT. I was desperate to get control and make the most of all the opportunities, of everything there was to be had.

I went along to the Grit workshop just to check it out. I didn’t have any expectations. I wasn’t very engaged. But then the trainer said “whatever you cannot say is the thing that is holding you back.” I went, “Ah! That is me! I can relate to that.”

As we dug deeper I started to connect the dots: this is what I do, this is how I am, this is what it stems from.  I saw how I don’t speak about my journey, my life. How I don’t want to make myself vulnerable. How I am always wanting to please my parents, my teachers, my tutors, please anyone in authority instead of myself. How my past has a hold on me and I won’t even talk about it.

So now I’ve started saying ‘no.’ I’ve stopped trying to please everyone else. Grit gave me the confidence, the insights to understand what I want do, what is right for me. And that is so liberating and freeing.

Grit made me feel powerful. It gave me the confidence to renegotiate my relationship with my parents. Being the real me has made me so much happier and better at communicating with my family and now they are beginning to see this too. So even though I’m not doing the course they think I should be doing, they support my decision.

Last year I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and join a society but I never did it. Last year I told myself I was going to play netball like I had at sixth Form but because it was a bit of a trek I ended up never going.

THIS year I’ve become an officer in the Commercial Awareness Society. I’ve signed up for the Black Leadership Programme.  I’ve become a student mentor. I’ve done the training to become an Achievement Coach for the Students in Classroom programme, helping in high schools in the city. And I’m much more organised with my academic work – I even got 100% in my most recent exam!

This year I’ve done so many things. I’m doing uni RIGHT!

 There are no limitations to me now. I am able to accomplish all that I want to accomplish. So my advice is, if you want to tap into who you really are, Grit is the perfect place to be.