By Daisy Bard 

Stage One: PURE MOLTEN FEAR.

Yesterday we got our email from Marc full of all the preparation to do pre-SCA: eight books. Several design packages. A scholarship brief where we categorically aren’t allowed to “succeed”. And a This Is Me project as the creative cherry on top.

I’m at my swivelly chair, in the office of a messy start-up, and my brain is suddenly buzzing with the amount of stuff I currently have in my charge. Full time job, where in a meeting a group of us were just told not to “count our hours”, tutoring part-time, up to my ears in books, meetings, paper, technology…I feel like a Strong Woman in a 90s movie, except with a smaller computer.

So let’s pause. As of now, I decide to switch off everything except the words in front of me, and my cup of tea.

I’ll read a book and improve my memory. This can only be a good thing as my memory is quite similar to my grandma’s: I’m great at what happened 10 years ago, but not so hot on what happened 10 seconds ago.

It’s sunny, and I just took a few minutes to walk outside, stretch, and smell the nice clean air. I have about 50 ideas for the scholarship brief. They probably all suck. I’ll work them over tonight and let’s see which one wins as they battle it out.