Distancing

Deadline

I hated being late, there was nothing that I hated more and ironically I was always late like for everything no matter how hard I tried. Right now I was late as ever to hand in one of my biggest assignments ever. Which genius's idea was it to create course work that's worth sixty percent of your grade anyway?

The blinding morning sun assaulted my eyes as I tore through UTech's back gate without even showing the security guard my student ID, he didn't seem to care as per usual and my university should really invest in better security.On days like these I was glad that the University of Technology Jamaica though being one of Jamaica's biggest Universities was not that big. That meant despite my lateness and my Faculty office being in the middle of school, I could get to the Faculty of Education of Liberal studies in fifteen minutes by running. Calling what I was currently doing running was a bit of an exaggeration though. Despite what many people thought, being Jamaican and almost six feet tall did not mean I could run, I was no Usain Bolt, not even near. This was made even more obvious by how I was already out of breath from just one minute of running that I had done so far.

My legs burned from thigh to toes and I was already cursing my decision to wear my red converse just because they looked great with my very cute outfit. My black Tupac cropped graphic tee and black jeggins was doing an excellent job of showcasing all of my curves and they looked great paired with my red converse, if only said converse weren't murdering my feet as they stretched out all the muscles in the sole of my feet. However I had no time to focus on that I had a portfolio to submit at nine o clock on the dot and I was about to be late.

I checked my watch for the time then hissed my teeth when I remembered that I couldn't even read my tiny analogue watch which had no numbers only very annoying dots that didn't do much to help me. I had never mastered the whole reading analogue time thing thanks to digital watches, phones and my very passionate dislike for numbers and anything math related.

I glanced at my phone and realized that I had six minutes to reach to my school office.

I was relieved for the shade provided by the mango trees that covered the universities sculpture park as I performed what was now a speedy limp across the nicely manicured lawns of the park. I could now feel the sweat that had started to sprinkle my nose and I brushed a few other students that were also hurrying to go about their business.

One very petite girl with flowing black box braids, while rushing in the same direction as me lost grip of her phone sending it crashing onto the stone pavement lining one of the seating areas.

"Damn idiat phone" she cussed along with a string of other colourful Jamaican expletives. I felt for her because I knew what she was feeling, I didn't fancy this part of the school year either. She hissed her teeth as she hastily grabbed the phone off the ground and continued a brisk walk before disappearing into a Sci- Tech building.

Today was no regular day I could feel the anxiety and stress creeping around the campus as we were in week ten or what I liked to call the week of doom. It was the week when all the lecturers decided to give deadlines for every subject assignment possible and tests, lots and lots of tests. The week when everybody on campus really started feeling the struggle of University life and if I had to guess, this is where many students would decide that college life was not for them. As my grandmother liked to say, "where the sheep would be separated from the goat". Even though these days everybody wanted to be the "GOAT", today I really wanted to be the sheep. I had to pass this course which meant handing in my final fashion design portfolio to my school office before the deadline of ten o clock.