When Things Go Wrong, Get Gritty

I woke up Thursday, March 12th with a gut feeling something was wrong. Reaching for my phone I found 37 missed messages, 7 missed calls, and what felt like a million news updates. President Trump had imposed a European travel ban in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which forced my study abroad trip to suddenly end and left me packing up my belongings. Throwing my things in a suitcase, I thought of the places I had yet to visit and the souvenirs I did not buy. On my flight back to the United States I barely made my connecting flights, sprinting across airport terminals not knowing what would happen if I missed my flight. Would I get stuck in Europe without a place to stay? Would I have to spend another thousand dollars to buy another ticket home? Anxiety and disappointment crept into my mind as the thoughts kept appearing.

My first morning back in the U.S, I was disturbed to find that I did not recognize waking up in my own bedroom. Self-pity, anger, and disappointment had reached its pinnacle; indeed, those feelings had been accumulating for quite some time. Over the last couple of weeks in Brussels, I felt loss inject itself into the center of all my conversations and thoughts. Loss of experiences, loss of time with friends, loss of money. It was all I could focus on and I was not alone.

A recent survey found that almost 60% of Americans claim their mental health has been seriously impacted by COVID-19. I decided my feelings were not going to alter my current situation. My ability to overcome failure and grit was definitely challenged this semester not only in my internship but in the overall experience.

During my internship I had spilled coffee on my pants, gone to the wrong floor to deliver a package, and sat in the wrong meeting. In the moment, these failures felt like drowning without any way to raise my head above the water. These failures were nothing more than mere mistakes that helped me learn more about my internship and myself. There will be moments in my future jobs where I make a mistake or fail. However, it is the mindset that you view this failure in that will make or break you.

Grit is the answer to overcoming failure. I was sure coming into this program that I had grit. As an achiever on the enneagram test, I thrive off of affirmation and encouragement. However, in the fast-paced workplace, these are not always easy to come by. You have to have an end goal and really want it. Most importantly, you need to understand that frustration is a part of the process. So, what did I want out of my study abroad experience?

I wanted my study abroad experience to be more than posting cute pictures on Instagram and eating waffles (even if they are amazing). I chose the Brussels Program so I could work in a European political institution and transfer the knowledge I learned in the classroom to real-life applications. When our trip was canceled due to COVID-19, I felt like I was being robbed of this opportunity, rather than focusing on what I had already accomplished. I learn how to conduct myself in a professional workplace, sharpened my written communication skills, and developed the grit I needed to succeed after Furman University.

The obstacles my peers and I faced this semester only cultivated our resilience and perseverance. Focusing on hoe my internship abroad landed me a summer internship in Washington D.C. helped me cope with the time we lost.

Angela Duckworth, the MacArthur “Genius” Award winner, said it best… “getting anywhere in life, doing anything worth doing, it just takes so much effort. If things were easier, then maybe we wouldn’t need grit. But I think most things that are worth doing take a long time and that sustained commitment. There are no shortcuts to true excellence.” My brief semester abroad revealed to me that in order to succeed in a career I am passionate about, I need to ignore the rhetoric of loss and get gritty.