Michael’s story

Michael was a mature student at the University of Hull when he did a Grit programme.

I was feeling very demoralized. I felt like giving up. I was seriously thinking about leaving.

It had been about 30 years since I left school so I’d done a Foundation Year. By the time I came across Grit I was five months into my first year as an undergraduate and, let me tell you, it was a massive step up from the Foundation Year. The course work, the exams, it was intense. It was coming at me from all sides.  

It was still partly online because of Covid. It was confusing and, to be honest, I was worn out. I’d lost some very close family members during the pandemic and was getting through some major health issues myself.

It was hard to make friends. We’d been in lockdown and then classes continued online so you never actually met anyone. Then, when things finally got back to normal it was difficult to connect: partly because of the age difference and partly because I struggled with the diversity of all the other students. I’m from a small, mono-cultural town and I just didn’t know how to relate.

But on the Grit programme we all really bonded. We created a WhatsApp group and there are people in it I still go for coffee with. We still message all the time. We still check in with each other, about how we are doing, how we are feeling. Now I’m stopping and talking to loads of people as I go around campus. And I’ve made some really deep friendships.  It’s boosted my confidence. I don’t feel lonely or isolated anymore.

Grit reminded me of why I signed up for university in the first place. This sense of commitment to myself, it’s kept me going. It’s kept me disciplined and focused when I’m having to deal with all the assignments. When there’s so much to do it can be so easy to say that you can’t be bothered but Grit made me be my word: do my best, get it done. I’ve been doing pretty well in the exams since…

One of the great things Grit showed me was how to stop my thoughts from getting in the way. When there was something in a lecture that I hadn’t understood there’d be this inner voice telling me that I’ll never understand, that I’ll never be able to do the course.  And so instead of listening to the lecturer I’d listen to this inner voice and miss what was said in the rest of the class. With grit I can let go of these negative thoughts and I’ve found that I can, and that I do, understand.

I’ve seen other people from the Grit workshop become a lot calmer, a lot more focused, a lot more able to prioritise their work. I’ve seen other people work out what it is that they really want. I’ve seen some of the most incredibly shy people become much more open, speaking and listening with confidence, joining student societies, making new relationships.

Grit is like a bungee jump. You can’t explain what it’s like. You only really know once you’ve done it. And sometimes it felt like flying off a cliff, especially when it got very emotional in the workshop and I just didn’t know where it was going to go. But you’ve got to give it a go. You definitely take loads away with you. Grit unblocks the path for you. It unblocks your own self.