Jawhen's story

"My aspiration is to find out a little more about my roots."

I struggled a lot during second year because I didn’t know I had dyslexia; halfway through second year I got the help that I needed and I was diagnosed. So from there it really opened my eyes to how you can enjoy uni, because when you’re struggling without realising why, it is hard for you to understand how to enjoy learning. By getting the help it helps you understand what to enjoy and what you’re good at. So third year has been my favourite year and I’m really proud of myself because I’m doing better at uni and I’m also loving it.

I’m from London; what brought me to Essex was that I read a lot about it online and it did well for student satisfaction and the departments seemed really awesome. I visited the uni with my family and it was just amazing, I loved it. I think it was the overall atmosphere on campus that the uni had compared to some others I visited. I initially didn’t come to this uni to study English literature and language; I originally came to do computer science which is a huge jump. I didn’t know much about English literature and language before I chose it but I had some experience from doing language at A-levels. Now that I’m actually doing it, I think it’s refreshing to see different methods and the way that people process things in their brain and understand how people learn language and learn how to speak and construct sentences. It’s quite interesting to see that.

My aspiration or goal is to find out a little more about my roots. I’m Kurdish and my family were in the war and they came here as refugees, so my goal is to just be a bit more involved in that part of me. I want to identify with that part of me more and understand it more than I previously did. Even though I’ve always been proud, I just want to be more knowledgeable about the history of my country and the people.

At the moment it’s just independent research. Currently there is a lot between Turkey and a place called Afrin, so I’m just trying to keep up to date with everything that’s happening and trying to be more involved in social media. People that have opposing views to what I think is right, I try to understand and persuade them that that’s not what they should be thinking and that they should be more supportive and a bit more peaceful with their ideas. A lot of people have a lot of hate towards the Kurdish people and I’m trying to counteract that but in a nice way because a lot of people go at it angrily and I don’t want to do that so I’m trying to show them that they don’t have to think that way.

I had a past where I struggled with a lot of stuff and happiness was something I didn’t have for such a long part of my life, that now I am happy I just want to remain having that sense of being comfortable in myself and in my own skin. Everything happens for a reason and I really believe in fate and also believe in karma. So I think be good, be happy and be nice to people and you’ll receive the same.