Yes, I am back. And no, you are not dreaming.
It’s felt like I haven’t written anything on here in a year, when in reality, it’s only been over a month. Time seems to slow down and speed up at the same time, which is a contradiction in itself.
The past month or so has been really busy, stressful, and fun all in one. It’s been good to get assignments done and marks back (even if some were a bit disappointing), and it’s been good working to restore a friendship back to a mutually beneficial point (see previous post for more).
It’s also been good to be working in events again, man I’ve missed the fast-paced life of an events weekend!
I (and a few classmates) worked at the Wintec Innes48 Business StartUp Competition that was held at The Atrium at our city campus a couple of months ago. It was a two-day event, where fifteen teams (ranging from two to eight people) were competing to make a viable business idea in 48 hours (hence the name).
At the end of the allocated time, six teams were selected to pitch their final ideas to a panel of judges to validate their business they came up with.
This all happened in a matter of hours on the final night, with dinner and drinks included too.
We volunteers were run off our feet the Friday and Sunday nights, with helping teams register and set up, to packing everything down after the final drinks were served.
Overall, it was a really fun and rewarding experience, and I cannot wait to see what other events I’ll be working at this year!
As for the long and necessary absence, you’re about to find out why I disappeared from this platform for the time I did…
I’m not one for using clichés, but I’m going to throw the most used one at you right now…
I was busy.
Actually, that statement isn’t accurate. Let’s try again.
I AM busy. Very much so.
Assignments at tech have been getting more demanding and intense, and the payoff has been greater, but that’s not all that’s been taking my energy.
I’ve also been trying to put together a magazine that was meant to be published about a month ago and it still isn’t done.
Oh, and I come home one day to find out that my identity had been fraudulently used to make a hire purchase agreement…
What a time to be alive! Not…
It was very stressful and frustrating because it felt like someone had invaded my home when I wasn’t there. The message had come when I was in class, you know, being a somewhat good student, doing my work and listening to people prattle on about who knows what.
And then it happened.
Someone came to my house and informed my flatmate that they needed to talk to me about something I “supposedly” did.
I come home to a red slip of paper, basically telling me that my house had been visited by someone in some sort of authority and that it was important that they speak to me immediately.
Instantly, I froze, and my insides just dropped to the ground (not literally) as I tried to make sense of what I had just read.
I called the number to try and make sense of everything, and within a matter of minutes, the same person was in my house again, but this time, I was surrounded by some friends who were around at the time (thank god for my friends!).
Basically, this person had informed me that my name and date of birth had been used to complete a hire purchase application form.
Because my full name is on the form as the default payer, this person had been sent to demand money from me. This is crazy! I’ve never done anything like what they were telling me I had done.
I felt very angry that someone who doesn’t have any idea who I am, would come into MY house and tell me that I had done this when I literally have never seen that piece of paper before.
I don’t know any of the other details on the form, so how could it possibly be me?!
Anyway, after my identity and signature had been established, he went away, but not before telling me that I have (unfortunately) been a victim of identity fraud.
All of that stress combined with assignments and group work stress made a very lethal cocktail in my head and poisoned everything I knew to be true and good in my life.
For about three or four weeks, I turned into a monster I could barely stand, I became less and less interested in everything around me, my friends didn’t know what to do with me, and up until recently, none of my family knew about it.
As you can tell, I don’t like to burden people on what’s going on in my head, as I feel like there are far more important things to worry about, rather than the possibility of me slowly unravelling and losing the fucking plot.
Eventually, I hit a brick wall when a tutor straight up told me (in a more diplomatic and “tutor-like” way) that what I was feeling every time I’d walk into that specific class was destroying me from the inside out, and that I need to leave the class.
So I did, and to be honest, I feel so much better about life. Clearly that class was doing more damage as time went on.
Now I’m heading into the last week of this semester, a time of stress, failed group work, changing my mind again and again, and feeling every single emotion under the sun.
I can’t wait to have a five-week break. I’m planning to sleep for at least one of them.
Fingers crossed the absence won’t be so long next time!
Tessa.
Tessa.
