University was my entire world. I thrived there both on and off my course. I edited the student
newspaper, had a show on the student radio station and organised an international development summit. I loved my course – politics with international relations – and made friends from around the world.
Then disaster struck. It started with depression but soon turned to mania. I became psychotic.
I went from being an extroverted student to an introverted recluse. I could not get up in time for lectures nor read my books and write my essays. I could barely clean my teeth.
I left university in my final year and spent the next three years holed up in solitude in my flat
getting more and more unwell.
Meanwhile, the university – Warwick – kindly gave me a second, third, then fourth chance.
Every year I was meant to be sitting my exams, I blew it. My full-time job was being mentally ill.
Eventually, my chances ran out and I was told to withdraw from Warwick. I was distraught. I cried for days. It was as though someone had ripped out an organ.
What followed wasn’t pretty. My psychosis reached a crisis point and I was arrested. I was eventually sectioned in hospital and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I received treatment; medication and psychological therapy which helped me recover.
The one thing on my mind throughout my recovery was my degree. It was too late to go back to Warwick so I thought I would have to start from scratch somewhere. Also, I would be in hospital for a while, which would surely prove to be a barrier to my education, or so I thought.
I called my department at Warwick and spoke to a member of their admin team. She suggested I do credit transfer at the Open University. She had thrown me a lifeline.
I transferred my credit from Warwick to the Open University and I thus only had one year left to
complete at the Open University. It gave me a reason to live again, it gave me hope. All those years wasted while mentally ill weren’t wasted. I started studying again when I was sectioned as an inpatient in hospital. It gave me an escape and focus from the monotony of hospital life. It was life changing.
The day I got my first-class honours degree, I cried, this time from happiness. The Open University had given me a second chance at my education.
A second chance at life.
