MICHAL (3rd year)

"Online studying is hard. I don’t enjoy it, I really don’t. I read a lot about motivation, but to me, that’s irrelevant, because if I genuinely felt like university wasn’t worth my time anymore, I would have dropped out. But that’s not the case, it’s just that ADHD plays a big role now. You are motivated, but you're not really able to do it. You can't get yourself to do it. Doing the work for the sake of doing the work is such an issue for me. If the work doesn’t feel productive, I hate doing it. That’s where I sort of give up, especially in the first wave, where everyone was finding new hobbies and new structures of living life. But I didn’t care about doing all those things because nobody was going to notice. I am the only person that's affected if I do or don't do something. So, if I don't feel like doing it, I'm not going to do it. I think this sounds brave, but it’s just about being able to make that choice for yourself.

Having ADHD during online university, I feel like I should not need to justify not having a feasible way to do my assignments. And to “put away all your distractions and change your environment” is not how it works when everything is a distraction. Now, with online classes, there are so many things that don’t work, where I feel like, do we then really want to take that chance? Not only considering grades, but also regarding mental health and physical well-being. I'm in my room all the time, so do I really want to feel stressed about a work project there? For me, there is a very physical dimension to it. My room is not that big. It's mine. I can live there. I like it for living, not for studying. It's just so incredibly hard to actually do work at home for me. It’s noisy, the Wi-Fi is bad. It's the space where I live, sleep, and hang out with my friends. There are only so many purposes for one room. And that's how I noticed that what I really need is to have separate spaces. I need to be able to walk to school, do my work there, and then leave that building to walk back home for a different activity. In the end, it is really about the change of scenery, and to be able to decide that for yourself." (2/2)