Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

“Grow through what you go through. “ I read these words on the shirt of a woman standing next to me the other day at the airport. Looking back life has brought so many lessons that the idea of thriving through it all may seem like a daunting task. Yet growth and change plus the ability to be so resilient is possible when you let life lead the way. We recently read an email that asked what what does it mean to thrive in academic spaces. Honestly, these spaces and the word thrive are misnomers. Few will ever say they have thrived as the system isn’t designed to make you thrive. I’m not sure these days what the systems are designed for but the idea of thriving seems far fetched but yet is possible when you grow from whatever experience academic spaces bring along the way. Can one thrive in academic spaces? Potentially. How will we know when we see someone who has thrived academically? Honestly we won’t because just when we think we see it, maybe even feel or know it, the world brings along something else that the only thing left to do is grow. So grow and keep this.