An apology to friends, family & loved ones. 

My name is Alek and this is my confession. 

I am 8 weeks in to my SCA journey and it is the only thing I talk about, the only thing I  think about, the only thing I dream about. 

Dinner with my girlfriend has become a brainstorming session, dog walks with my mum is  a crit on my latest idea, watching the football with my dad has become a series of grunts  in response to my plea for feedback. You get the idea, I’m obsessed.  

I’m fully aware I’ve barely seen my friends since I joined SCA. Of course this has been  made even more difficult by the seemingly everlasting pandemic, but it’s also because by  the time I’ve left the studio, arrived home, cooked dinner, walked the dog… I am spent.  Entirely devoid of energy and yet my brain is still buzzing with the latest brief, or a way to  make a news story into a topical, a way to make myself stand out from the crowd. It’s the  first time in my life I enjoy working beyond the hours required, willing there to be more  hours in the day so I can find that unique product truth, that eureka moment that will  make jaws drop and bring the mentors to their knees… or so I can dream. 

Let me tell you, my dreams are absolutely wild. So far I’ve had the ‘Pitch where I forgot to  put trousers on’, ‘Nobody wanted to partner with me except for a small mouse called  Kevin – and he had a drinking problem’ and ‘winning the dream placement only for aliens  to attack on day one’. I’ve started keeping a journal by my bed so I can jot things down  from my dreams because who knows, something might just come from one of my  moments of insanity. If you ever see an alcoholic mouse in an ad, that’s my pal Kevin,  fresh out the deep dark corners of my brain. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is I feel like I’ve gone through an intense remoulding of  every fibre of my being in just 8 weeks. My fortitude of ego has been broken down, my  creative habits have been interrogated and rewired, imposter syndrome regularly rears its  ugly head, something I had previously dismissed as fiction. I know I sound like a broken  human at this point, and maybe I am, but isn’t that the point of all of this? Break me down  so I can build myself back as a strong creative, ready for all the challenges that are going  to be thrown at me by the world of advertising and beyond. 

The weirdest part? I love it. 

There’s something beautiful about caring about something so passionately in a time that  is so saturated with apathy. Something that drives me in a year where motivation seems  absolutely absent. A project to give absolute focus that is not only about professional  development, but also digs deep into the very core of who you are as a person and  changes the way you see the world.