To say my life is not full of action and adventure would be a bald-faced lie, and I would never dream of lying to you, dear reader. People are always asking me what a day in my life is like – “people” meaning my relatives, who are concerned and confused by my life choices. I doubt my vlog will alleviate their concerns, but I’m sure it could help their confusion! I can confidently say that my vlog is highly representative of most days in my life – as most days in my life are more or less identical… which sounds so much sadder than I realised. Anyway, click on my face to watch a day in my life!

My day begins when I wake up, usually to the sound of my younger brother singing Taylor Swift songs at the top of his lungs. I lay in bed, hoping that today will be the day I meet a rich widow who will take me into her home and ensure I never have to work again. It’s a great way to ensure that every day is disappointing! While most days I spend my mornings running errands for my family, there are some mornings where I go to campus for meetings with my supervisor and her other postgrad students. These meetings sometimes become therapy sessions – desperately needed therapy sessions – which manage to be both cathartic and informative. Aside from meetings, I also go to campus to tutor, which involves me forcing the students to call me Captain, and telling them to stand on their desks. There have been a lot of injuries but I think it’s worth it. Just kidding!

Once home from the morning’s errands, I immediately start procrastinating working hard. I don’t grab my guitar and attempt to learn a song that is far beyond my skill level; I don’t watch YouTube videos about topics I have never once considered in my life; and I definitely do not scroll mindlessly through Instagram, forgetting each post the second it leaves my sight. Perhaps a less committed student may indulge in such behaviour, but I would never!

So, what work do I do when I’m not doing all of the above? Well, most of my time is spent writing and reading, working on specific chapters for my research paper – like my methodology, my literature review, or my study site. Writing is not always the easiest thing to do. Some days the words flow with ease, but other days the words give you the cold shoulder and refuse to explain what you did to upset them, which makes it impossible to make up for it! Currently, I am doing data analysis, which means I am going through the interviews I conducted, and searching for themes and patterns in the participants’ answers. It is a truly exciting stage in my research, and I cannot wait to share my findings with the world!

Loadshedding plays a key role in how I structure the work in my day, with the threat of loadshedding pushing me to work quicker so that my day doesn’t end with me working in total darkness. That said, my day usually ends with me working in total darkness. The stress of an upcoming deadline pairs wonderfully with the paranoid thoughts the darkness causes. Finally, exhausted from a hard day of stressing about work – which then prevents me from actually working – I get in bed and am suddenly wide awake and unable to fall asleep.

This happens every night.

Send help.