Tarisai's Story

My name is Tarisai. I am Zimbabwean British, but I have spent my entire life in Dubai—I know, most people tend to be shocked by that. Then they follow up with ‘Do you own an island?’ I can sadly confirm, I do not.

I chose to study Film and Creative Writing because I have a deep love for the arts and storytelling. I am a member of the National Youth Theatre, and I’ve been acting since I was six years old. It would be rather boring to rehash my entire personal statement, but I think telling stories through literature, my body, and my craft is the most important thing to me.

A new landscape

When I first considered Birmingham, I was doing my A levels at a boarding school in rural England. I admittedly had a very narrow idea of what Birmingham was, mostly because I didn’t know what England was really like beyond the confines of a posh school and intensive research (Mallory Towers by Enid Blyton).

It was a beautiful sunny day, there were so many cultures, the staff were nice, the course seemed amazing, and my mother and I had ended up pleasantly surprised. I couldn’t stop smiling because I could see myself there.

By the time I had joined, everything started off amazingly. However, after freshers, I realised I didn’t love going to the club even though I’m an extrovert. I didn’t know anyone, and I had never really had to cook or clean after myself as much as I did. The worst part was how lonely I felt. It was difficult not being close to the people I lived with and not having teachers breathing down my neck. And that was when I realised I didn’t always fit in because making friends was not as easy as it used to be, and sometimes I felt like people had already formed an opinion of me before they got to know me.

Because I was from Dubai, I realised I had a different outlook on life. Most of my life has been spent most of my life in Dubai and, apart from boarding school, I’d lived in quite a different environment from many of the people around me. I think the difference in upbringing made it harder for people to understand me, and I felt that people judged me based on the privileges they assumed I had rather than getting the time to get to know me.

Finding my people

But every story of course ends with a happy ending, and I did end up meeting an amazing group of friends. For the first time in my life, I had a massive multicultural, mixed-gender friendship group that love film. This type of friendship group was definitely something I had dreamed about, liked being able to have healthy friendships with both girls and boys without feeling like there were expectations attached to them. It is lovely having a group of friends where I can build genuine relationships without overthinking what they were supposed to become.

Creating without fear

In our spare time we work on our own individual social media and different endeavours, and together we put together movies for our group YouTube channel. In the months that we’ve gotten closer I definitely feel like I’ve grown as a person. I’m way more confident and willing to embarrass myself—even though I probably already did that before Birmingham. I create all the time and I’m no longer afraid of taking space when I believe I’ve got a great story to tell. After completing a three-hundred-page novel, I wrote my first feature-length script and I’m so proud of myself for doing it.

Your story starts here

If I were to give advice to anyone, I’d encourage you to just do what you got to do to make your life more interesting. If it’s making music, post it. If it’s dance, do it. If it’s art, sell it. The creative industries are just as important as the corporate world. And to University is scary at times but you’ll honestly fit right in, just give it time and let yourself be YOU.