Season 1: Life takes a turn around

Chapter 4: Time to go to Uni

The loud sound of the alarm shocked me out of my slumber of the early hours of the morning against my wish. Pulling my hand away as I realised what I was doing, I sighed and shook my head in frustration. "Fudging hell I'm so tired," I said out loud and tried to stretch, but the desire to go to work knowing my university schedule is full tomorrow doesn't make staying in bed any easier. Morning battles between the need to stay in bed and the need to get up are very common with me and today was no different.

For as much as Skyline she and I had synchronized our work and school careers. He and I are not only former colleagues, but former compatriots as well, at least, the university made co-students out of us. This particular synchronization was rather comforting in our days and the mornings were slightly less dreadful.

It was still surprisingly early when I woke up, and it took a few minutes for me to properly open my eyes; Skyline was waiting for me and I sat up quickly, yawning, but smiling at him. "Good morning, Skyline!"

"Morning, Skyline," I grunted, which appeared to offend anyone within hearing distance of the hand piece more than was decent. "Well done, John – that set me back like a freight train!"

"Same here," Skyline burst out laughing. "Once in a while I was even thinking of faking sickness, to get 'dead' to work or school – I am, well, dead; but here I am. "

When I talked to my friend it was a great opportunity given the fact that within the 30 minutes drive from our homes to the university we engage in a straight forward conversation. A few hours afterwards the sun rose in the streets of Eldoria and cast huge keen shadows and warm shine. The drive was sort of a conditioning of the mind for the day's activities and with the company of Skyline it was not as if one could ever deem it a nightmare.

"Hey boys, have you seen what the new menu in the cafeteria is going to look like?" Skyline wanted to add the missing minutes back into our conversation. "This is what they already have referred to that is known as 'Mystery Meat Surprise.' "

I raised an eyebrow. "Mystery Meat Surprise? Forget about the humane treatment of animals, that sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. "

Skyline laughed. "Well said. No, I won't eat that with a ten-foot pole! Even if it isn't the best pasta around, at least it will be something I know I am putting into my mouth."

We got to the university to take the next class we had been scheduled for. There were a lot of students on the campus and you could barely tell that it was early morning as everybody went about their businesses. Normal second year students seemed far away and full of many frustrations that first year students had not encountered. Nevertheless, it was comforting to be in the same boat – dealing with both university and work, and trying to balance both.

The morning lecture was on Eldorian mythology and the man giving the lecture was a Professor Hawthorne – portly man with a rather odd comfortable that had mismatched socks. He would, at one time, give a vivid account of the mythical 'Golden Yeti' of Eldoria believed to be in the mountains hunting for anything that glistens.

Skyline elbowed me and said, "I'm sure the Golden Yeti would be interested in a tour of the Compartment VF lost, and found section, we have enough socks and shoelaces in every color to knit a sweater for him if he wanted it".

I put my hand to my mouth to hide a smile, and to avoid drawing the attention of the professor to me. The lecture proceeded and I discovered the great elders of these people and their past deeds. There was a hero, who, according to rumours, could chat with squirrels. "I mean," I muttered to Skyline, "if I could talk to squirrels, I'd ask them where they hide all those acorns They're just stockpiling them for when they stage a squirrel coup. "

It was so rare for me to be in the same room with Michael during the break between classes that accidentally we started to discuss work issues. The overlapping benefited the learning process as well as the cooperation at the workplace. I went to have a cup of coffee at a university café and there in the corner I turned to my friend and described a difficult project.

"Well," I prompted taking a spoonful of coffee, "how exactly are we to wire that new device and not risk tripping all the fire alarms in the building?"

Skyline grinned. "I have a plan that is very cloak and dagger with a dash of using duct tape as the universal fix all tool, If nothing works out as planned blame it on the 'Mystery Meat Surprise'."

The final class was done and all packed our things and went to the car and headed back Then we spend a lot of time discussing what we could come up with from the lectures and the debates we could even implement at work.

'Any update on the new student council president?', Skyline asked me keenly as he was driving. "He seems to be hooked on the Eldorian soap operas now You are right; I will vie for the vice presidency for a chance for the free soap operas"

'Sounds like a plan,' I laughed. The show I would only come to watch popcorn being made live, that is how interesting the show is!

The moving from the day have been a good dinner break and time from the bustle of the day. Staying alone in my flat in the evening, I had my hot cocoa and a book to try to delete what had happened during the day. Since cocoa was warm, and home was safe and cosy, I was a able to complete a full day comfortably. This was partly because of the jokes in; work, school and some of the items that I came across or heard through the day that brought out my laugh.

At such, Eldoria was slowly turning to the country of opportunities in which each day was defined by learning new things and gaining new experiences. The integration of our learning with the working was not a conflict but a process that going side by side with it and this can explain why the journey was all the more fulfilling. As each day turned into night and vice versa, I was more and more sure of myself in terms of balancing university and work because there was only one thing that was certain: Skyline was hanging beside me and the future, the future it seems has something good in store for me.

And if there was no chance of that, we had a good yarn to tell in later years of the Golden Yeti and the Mystery Meat Surprise.