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Creative nonfiction

These pieces of creative nonfiction have been penned by students and members of staff.

Title: My Stomach Churns

Author: Neil Currant

Year of publication: 2016

The following post is a short scene of creative nonfiction that describes an interview with Janice (pseudonym), a Black student at an anonymised university, Midfordshire University. The aim of this work is to give a student perspective on their experience at university. The work is clearly one person’s perspective. I make no attempt to generalise from the particular or to make wider statements about what this experience might mean. However, I hope that you, the reader, will at least stop to reflect on this student’s experience:

I don’t know whether it was Janice’s or Melissa’s idea to volunteer for the research. They both came forward together. As it turned out, Janice considered Melissa to be her only friend on the course.

I had agreed to meet Janice at lunch in the refectory. It was a chilly February day. As I walked in, I could feel the contrast it heat to the outside and the windows had steamed up as a result. My ears were assaulted by the expected din of a busy canteen.

Janice quickly spotted me. She was alone. As we walked towards each other, I was suddenly aware of us as two individuals amongst a sea of people busily chatting and eating. That sense of isolation was to seep through our conversation.

Once we got set up in a quiet space elsewhere in the building, I went through my preamble explaining my research, ethics and consent. Janice was from Africa originally before moving to London as an adult and finally to Midford. She worked in a local school and was studying for a degree to enhance her career prospects.

I thought I would start with a general overview of her experiences, “how would you describe your experiences here at the university?” I asked.

I think the preamble had primed Janice to jump straight in to the core of her experiences. “I started at a London university. I was only there for a year but I felt more involved, more at home than I feel here.”

She continued, “We did so many things together, so many activities where we had to group ourselves. We had to make acquaintances. We had to be together and talk. I made friends so much quicker than I have done here. I think that is the difference.”

Janice’s voice dropped on the final sentence. Talking about the contrast between the London University and Midfordshire University came through in her tone as well as her words. Janice talked some more about that contrast and speculated as to why she felt it was different at Midfordshire. Was it that they only had classes on one day a week? Was it because she was the only Black person on the course? Was it because they were never required to mix as a group?

Janice wasn’t sure why but she certainly felt the isolation. “I am on my own. I struggle even though I am friends with Melissa. She is about the only person I could say I talk to and I know.”

Then she uttered the words that really stuck in my head. “I always tell my husband this, every time I come into university it is like my stomach churns, it is so tight it hurts.”