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lovestrucked-again · 5 years ago

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Sanguine I Mafia

Genre: Mafia AU Warnings: dark themes Word Count: 3k ANON Ask: Hi I really LOVE your writing and I’d like to request the reader in the nct mafia series gets in some trouble with another company. Serious trouble. But on accident. So the boys have to really work something out to get her back – I’ve taken the idea and done a little series, hope you like it <3 Summary: You were a second year med student taken in by the house of NCT. It’s not uncommon to be the last to learn things within the house but when your safety is threatened, your forced to leave home with no option. But it only makes things worse.

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Waking up to a loud racket in the morning was nothing new or surprising for you. After moving in, the rarity of having a silent morning was priceless and you could only dream of those days. However, for this Thursday morning, waking up so late in the morning was a disaster, finding out you’re running late to your morning lecture wasn’t what you were expecting. As a second year med student, suggested by yours truly, Qian Kun, you were crushed by the weight of content, leading to late study nights and hectic schedules.

When you were first bought in, you were still a first year student, confused in what course direction to take, what your interests were, and your own capability. As you got comfortable within the house while your first year ended, Kun suggested going into medical school, noticing your attention to detail and caring nature. Lucky for you, your studies were never an issue and getting in proved no difficulty.

Your bedside clock given as a gift from Doyoung (because your always late), showed 8:02am, 28 minutes before it starts. Quickly jumping out of bed you ran to your bathroom, brushing through the knots that had formed in your hair overnight and taking a shower. After getting dressed and grabbing your phone and bag you ran downstairs to grab a snack before leaving. Surprisingly the house seemed strangely quiet for an early morning. A few of the boys slept in during the mornings, somehow managing to sleep though the heavy noise, but majority would be up and about by now.

You sneaked a peak into the living room while grabbing an apple from the fridge, seeing the absence of people. You grabbed your usual set of keys from the row of hooks at the entrance to the garage, noticing most of the car keys were missing but too late to think deeply into it. You ran over to your favourite car within the garage and threw your backpack onto the passenger seat beside you before starting the engine and driving as fast as you could to your class.

Arriving 5minutes after the lecture started, you sneak in through the back door hoping no one would notice you. Obviously with your luck, the class happened to be completely silent when you entered and the sound of the door creaking open caught everyone’s attention. You mumbled a small apology to the lecturer who didn’t bother to acknowledge your presence and continued with his talk. You settle into your seat and pull out your laptop and begin typing away as he talks.

Almost halfway through your lecture your phone buzzes. You ignore the initial vibration felt from the phone on your desk, too immersed in typing as your lecturer continues talking without bothering to slow down. However, as soon as the continuous texts popped through, the students around you were starting to give you looks and you had no choice but to answer to your phone. You glance at the screen noticing the texts from Jaehyun.

Jaehyun: Where are you?

Jaehyun: Y/N?

Jaehyun: Y/N? Answer me.

Y/N: In a lecture, something up?

You see the three little dots typing through the screen for a minute, then disappearing, and then reappearing.

Jaehyun: No, have fun and stay safe.

Not bothering with it too much, you placed your phone in your bag this time, and tried to catch up to what the lecturer was explaining. When the digital clock above the board showed 10am, the lecturer began piling up his paperwork, and dismissed the class.

Normally you’d find the Dream group who would be roaming around the campus around the same time as you had your lunch break. The 2000s line were first year students due to their part time commitment as students. They balanced life at home with training and missions while also completing a normal life – forced upon by Taeyong. You made your way over to the tables under the shaded trees and pulled out your phone to pass time. It was almost 10:30 when you realised there was still no one here.

You pull up the group chat you had for the bunch of you who attended college; Renjun, Haechan, Jeno, Jaemin and you.

Y/N: Did you guys all ditch today?

Haechan: We got held back at home

Y/N: You’re at home?

Haechan: Yeah

Y/N: It was so quiet this morning though, I thought no one was home.

Haechan: Big meeting today

Y/N: Guess I’m spending lunch alone

Jaemin: Go make some new friends

Jaemin: Girl-friends only

Y/N: :(

You hum to yourself, putting in your earphones and grabbing your drawing pad along with a pen. The time passes rather quickly as you sketch out the trees in your view, the figures of people passing by, the group of friends gathered on the lawn. The music abruptly stops and you look at your phone, confused at the interruption. You notice the call coming through and pull out your earphones to place the phone against your ear.

“Hello?”

“Hey can you come to the car?”

“My car?” You ask, confused.

“Yeah, I’m at your car.”

“Okay, give me a few minutes.” You tell him, hanging up to gather all your belongings.

You notice the familiar car parked next to your own car and your face crinkles up confused at the unannounced visit from Lucas coming to your campus. Lucas stands leaning against the bumper of his car, staring at his phone not seeing you approach him.

“Hey what are you doing here?” You ask,

“I’m picking you up.” He simply states, putting his phone in his pocket and taking your laptop and textbooks from your grasp.

“I drove though.” You tell him.

“I know, one of the guys will get your car,” he says, motioning to the passenger side of his car for you to get in as he places your stuff in the back seat and opens the door on the driver’s side for himself.

“What’s going on?” You ask, closing the door before your fighting with your seatbelt strap to pull over your shoulder.

“We’re going on a vacation.” Lucas replies, leaning over to help you with your seatbelt. You lean back against your seat as he fumbles with it for a second and then buckles you in.

“Thanks, and I don’t know if you’ve realised but I still have lectures to attend tomorrow.” You tell him.

“Jaehyun handled them already.” He tells you.

“What do you mean?” You ask, starting to get concerned with the sudden situation. “Lucas what’s going on?” you ask again.

“Call Jaehyun, it’s better he tells you,” Lucas says, letting out a sigh as he pushes the gear stick into drive. You pull out your phone and dial his number, being sent straight into voicemail. You try again while Lucas watches, waiting for a response as well.

“He isn’t answering.”

“Try Taeyong.” He tells you. You click onto your speed dial for 1, calling Taeyong immediately. The phone rings for a few seconds and as your about to give up, he answers.

“Hello?”

“Hey princess what’s up?”

“Jaehyun didn’t pick up his phone and what’s with this sudden vacation? I still have classes to attend.”

“I’ve put your application on defer for now.”

“You did what?!” You yell into the phone. Lucas flinches from your sudden raise in voice.

“Sorry I should’ve talked about this with you.” You hear Taeyong sigh through the other end.

“Yeah, obviously. I’m not going on vacation or whatever this crap is Tae, I’m going back to class tomorrow.”

“Y/N things aren’t going very well recently and I need you to get away from everyone so your safe.”

“I don’t care about that, since when did you have a say in my education and what I do?!” You yell, “I’ll move in with a friend if I have to but I’m not leaving.”

“Sorry Y/N but I can’t let you do that, please just go with Lucas for now okay? I’m busy at the moment so I’ll call you back later.” He states, hanging up before anyone has a chance to say more.

Little did you know, the meeting that occurred earlier in the day was to discuss the current situation with enemy plans and events that have recently been going on. The members had been taking turns following you secretly to classes or trying to accompany you wherever you went without you realising it. Taeyong had been receiving threats lately regarding the entire NCT and the safety of the members. When someone sent an anonymous email to him containing images taken of you doing your daily activities outside of the house he decided it was time to separate you from the group.

Much to many of the members disliking of being separated and out of site, you were in danger to be living with them in this current situation. You leaving the city was planned last minute today and was agreed upon by majority in the meeting. Doyoung and Lucas had packed all your essentials within a few minutes before Lucas left to pick you up, leading you to where you were now. Your safety had been left in the hands of Lucas, unfortunately. Not saying that you were on bad terms with Lucas but more of his reliability seemed to be questionable.

Lucas on the other hand was even more miserable than you. The problem of babysitting you while being separated from all the action back home and being stuck inside a hotel would kill him of boredom.

The car ride was mostly silent, Lucas trying to change through the music playing and then being interrupted by phone calls coming through. He connected them to his in ear Bluetooth, trying to avoid you from hearing about the business projects he was dealing with. You rotated between sleeping and scrolling through social media for the car ride. Eventually as night falls, he pulls into a hotel within a small town. The two of you get out the car and he goes in ahead of you, tossing the keys to you while he susses it out.

The front desk lady had placed a pair of keys on the counter bench when you walked in the front door. You could see Lucas was running a hand through his hair – a habit he did when he was frustrated - when you approach him.

“What happened? Did you place a reservation?” You ask Lucas as he dials Jaehyun.

“The guys did, Jaehyun gave me the address for this place.”

“What’s the problem then?” You question, confused.

“Why did you book only one room and there’s only one bed?” Lucas complains into the phone. As soon as Lucas mentions one room you go blank. Sharing a bed wasn’t an issue for either of you, considering you’d had frequent movie nights with him which you ended up sleeping there instead of returning to your room. The problem is his sleeping habits. They want me to share a room with this loudass? How am I meant to sleep through his snoring? Your head was running through a billion problems and you were bought back into reality just as Lucas was about to hang up.

“Jaehyun what is this?” You ask, motioning for the phone from Lucas.

“Hey baby how are you?”

“Great. A little frustrated but you know, nothing new.” You tell him sarcastically.

“Yeah I know, sorry everything was too sudden for you.”

You sigh into the phone, knowing that you shouldn’t be taking your feelings out on him, “Yeah.”

“It’ll be over soon,” He says, comforting you through the phone.

“Okay,” you mumble, “Lucas and I are checking in now, be careful okay?”

“Yeah you too.” He replies, just as you end the call and hand the phone back to Lucas.

Lucas takes the keys on the counter and the two of you head back to the car to bring your belongings up. The room was simple. A large king sized bed and a TV in its direct line of sight. The bathroom connected near the entrance in a separate area and a little study desk and lamp. A little couch at the far end near the curtains covering the sight of a balcony.

“I’m going to shower first.” You tell him, searching for your pyjamas.

“Don’t be so slow, I’m tired.” He complains.

“Says the boy who spends 20minutes in there.” You shoot him a glare and he smiles at you blinking his eyes with innocence. “Also who packed my suitcase, where’s my pjs?”

“Doyoung and I did, don’t know if we packed pjs though..” he trails off. He pushes himself up from the couch and flips through his bag. He pulls out a plain white shirt and throws it across the room to you, “Wear this.”

“Is it clean?” You ask, holding it with the tips of your fingers. His hygiene routine isn’t classified as one of the best within the group and you feared he had given you a sweaty one.

“Obviously.” You give him a suspicious look and gather your night time things, heading into the bathroom. You strip down and step slowly into the tub, turning the water on high and letting it beat over your head as the steam begins to fog up the mirror. Closing your eyes, the heat of the water soaks into your skin and you lean against the cool tiles, exhausted at the day of events.

After you’ve washed shampoo and conditioner through your hair, you turn the tap off, squeezing out the water with your hands into the tub before stepping out. The towel hangs from the door hook and your easily able to grab it without getting the floor wet. You quickly dry yourself off and chuck on a bra, undies and Lucas’ white shirt. You wrap the towel around your hair as you step out and the temperature difference of the rooms immediately causes you to shiver.

“You can go now.” You tell Lucas, jumping straight under the covers of the bed. He hums in response, throwing you the TV remote while he disappears. You lean up against the bed board and flick through the channels, finally deciding to just turn it off instead when nothing seems interesting just as your phone beeps.

Johnny: Hey Princess are you still awake?

Y/N: Yeah, how is everyone?

Johnny: Everyone’s okay, there’s a training session going on at the moment so they’re all a bit busy

Y/N: Ahh okay.

Your debating whether you should ask about Taeyong, regretting yelling at him earlier and knowing he was only trying to keep you safe.

Y/N: Is Taeyong mad at me?

Johnny: He’s not mad, just a little stressed is all.

Johnny: Don’t worry about it.

Y/N: Okay

Johnny: Go to sleep now, it’s getting late, you and Lucas still have to keep driving tomorrow.

Y/N: I will, goodnight.

Johnny: Night <3.

Just as you shut your bedside light, Lucas walks out the bathroom shirtless, ruffling his hair with the towel and eyes glued to his phone.

“You’re not sleeping on the couch?” He asks, glancing over at you.

“Me?” You question.

“Well I’m too tall to fit and besides, I’ve been driving all day and I’ll be driving all day tomorrow.” He states, pulling the sheets down on the other side.

“Do you know how many bedbugs are on that couch?” You ask before answering it yourself, “too many.”

“Just don’t kick me throughout the night like last time.” He warns you, flipping over to his side.

“Wow you’re so terrifying.” You mumble, crawling more towards your side of the bed. “Don’t snore like your Santa Claus okay?” You remind him.

Lucas obviously ignored your warning as he snores throughout the night. You let out a groan as you sit up and push him over, tossing him more towards his side of the bed. He stops snoring momentarily and then it starts again after a few minutes of peaceful silence. Are you kidding me. You do your best to just ignore him and fold the pillow against your ear, making the sound as quiet as possible. Your phone rings just as you feel like you’re finally falling into sleep and you cry in frustration, rolling over to reach it and pick up, not looking at the caller ID.

“Hey baby, how have you been?” The deeper voice asks.

“Sorry, do I know you?” You mumble, still asleep in your state.

“Ouch, that hurts, how could you say that to your lover.”

You open your eyes, squinting at the light of the unknown number on your phone screen. “Sorry I think you’ve got the wrong number.”

“Do I really? I swear this was the number for Miss Y/N, the beautiful lady who happens to be living with one of the desired Mafia gangs.” You stayed silent through the phone, immediately sitting up, obviously this guy knew who you were and your relation to the boys. You glance at Lucas whose still asleep and your feet search for your slippers. Quietly you tip toe out to the hallway, leaving a gap in the door behind you. “If I’ve still got the wrong number feel free to hang up, I’ll continue chatting with the so notorious leader who happens to be knocked unconscious.”

“WAIT!” You whisper into the phone,

“Hm?”

“Wh-what do you want?” You hesitatingly ask.

“That’s what I thought.” He laughs. “Now I know you aren’t alone baby, so is anyone listening to us?”

“No.”

“Good girl.” He hums before continuing “I want you to come home.”

“What?”

“Come home, alone.” He says, “and remember to keep this a secret, or it might be bad for the present I have for you. I’ll be waiting.”

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clarkgriffon · 5 years ago

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50 Questions Tag Game

Tagged by @pendragaryen @moonshoesreyes @immortalpramheda @talistheintrovert

What is the color of your hairbrush? Purple i think?

Name a food you never eat? fish

Are you typically too warm or too cold? too warm right now, but honestly it depends on the weather. if it is slightly too hot or too cold, you can bet i’ll be bitching about it.

What were you doing 45 minutes ago? listening to an econometrics lecture

What is your favorite candy bar? i mean, i’m bougie, so any high quality chocolate bar, but of the standards you’d get at the checkout in a grocery probably twix or three musketeers

Have you ever been to a professional sports event? oh, definitely. dodger’s games as a kid, and i danced at a couple of basketball games at halftime in high school and then stayed to watch the game

What is the last thing you said out loud? “okay.” my mom said she was going to make a call to someone and that was literally the only response necessary.

What is your favorite ice cream? extreme moosetracks or tillamook mudslide

What was the last thing you had to drink? i want to say water because i have a glass of water right next to me but it was actually coffee

Do you like your wallet? i mean yeah. it’s one of those snap wallets (not a fold over) and it’s sequined and zebra print. i think i got it at claire’s at like age 12 and i’ve been using it since.

What was the last thing you ate? bean and beef burrito.

Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? we in quaratine babey, i don’t leave the house.

The last sporting event you watched? implying i would willingly watch sports is hilarious. i don’t have a fucking clue.

What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? lots of, lots of butter.

Who is the last person you sent a text message to? my sister, we split the cost on a mother’s day gift and she texted me to make sure it arrived.

Ever go camping? yeah, i was a girl scout.

Do you take vitamins? i should. i’m supposed to take vitamin d but uhhh can’t remember the last time i did that

Do you go to church every Sunday? no....... im jewish. but also not religious. also leave my house every sunday are you crazy?

Do you have a tan? no.

Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza? chinese food

Do you drink your soda with a straw? not usually. or i guess yeah if it’s from a soda fountain.

What color socks do you usually wear? white with colored accents.

Do you ever drive above the speed limit? I hate driving so jot that down, but when i do drive............ no.

What terrifies you? lack of understanding, the unkown.

Look to your left, what do you see? the wall.

What chore do you hate? all of them, but especially mopping. it just feels like a lot of work.

What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? i... i don’t know. they’re cool i guess?

What’s your favorite soda? Diet Dr. Pepper

Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thrus? right now drive-thrus (duh), but it depends. i don’t own a car when i’m at school so i have to walk in.

Who’s the last person you talked to? like i said. my mom.

Favorite cut of beef? i feel like there are specific terms for this that i don’t know, but i sure do like beef.

Last song you listened to? Clumsy - All Time Low

Last book you read? Probably my urban planning text book

Favorite day of the week? sunday. n o, saturday.

Can you say the alphabet backwards? sure.

How do you like your coffee? cream and sugar.

Favorite pair of shoes? tennis shoes, black, comfy cushioning.

The time you normally go to sleep? 12:30-1am

The time you normally get up? 10am

What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? sunsets. i’m not getting up to see a sunrise.

How many blankets on your bed? 3-4, but i only use 1-2 usually.

Describe your kitchen plates: teal and orange.

Do you have a favorite alcoholic beverage? don’t drink

Do you play cards?��depends on the game

What color is your car? don’t own a car

Can you change a tire? fuck no

Your favorite province? what be a province

Favorite job you’ve ever had? i haven’t had many. they were all pretty low tier, minimum wage type jobs so i’m pretty ambivalent.

How did you get your biggest scar? ooh, i have a scar on my elbow about the size of a quarter that i got by tripping on the blacktop at school in middle school. because i was running. on the blacktop. it’s my own fault. it’s super healed now and way less noticeable but still there.

What did you do today that made someone else happy? i’ve been awake like 2 hours cut me some slack. oh, i gave my dad a hug. that’s good.

tagging whoever wants to do this!

#tag game #about me

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johnthestitcher · 5 years ago

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Yiddish Book Center Plea for Help

Dear John, I hope you and your family are safe. I'm writing today to give you a candid briefing on the state of the Yiddish Book Center, and to let you know what you can do to help.

There's a familiar Yiddish expression that says, "A mentsh trakht un go lakht—a person plans and God laughs." That's how we felt on March 13, when we closed the doors of our Amherst building. Until then, everything had been going so well. The number of Yiddish books downloaded from our website passed the four million mark. For the first time, it was possible to find any name, place, word, or phrase in three million pages of Yiddish literature in a matter of seconds. We had recently recorded our 1000th oral history interview, we were about to release our new Yiddish textbook, and we had just won the London Book Fair's International Excellence Award for Literary Translation Initiative.

Then the sky came crashing down, and instead of planning new projects, we suddenly found ourselves scrambling for the future. According to experts, between a quarter and a third of non-profit organizations will be out of business before the pandemic is over. We are doing everything in our power to make sure the Yiddish Book Center isn't one of them.

Fortunately, we’re starting with two advantages. We were financially sound when the crisis began, and we have a fifteen-year head start in making our books and resources accessible online. In late February, as soon as we saw what was coming, we put systems in place so staff members could work efficiently from home. Today, although our building is closed, the Center itself remains open. In fact, we’re reaching more people than ever before.

A few weeks ago, for example, Mindl Cohen and Sebastian Schulman led an online discussion of variant translations of “Zeks shures—Six Lines,” a short poem by Aaron Zeitlin. It was, admittedly, an arcane subject which, in normal times, would have been unlikely to attract a minyen, an in-person audience of ten. Online, attendance totaled 832! Subsequent online lectures and programs have generated even larger virtual audiences of around 1,000 people.

The fact that so many people are showing up online is not only gratifying, it’s transformational, because it suggests a path forward, a way to accomplish more with less, both now and in the future. That rubric now informs almost every aspect of our work:

Since college students can’t travel to Amherst in June for our Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, our faculty will be offering free, full-credit, seven-week Yiddish courses remotely, via Zoom.

We’re scouring our vast digital holdings to uncover lost or forgotten treasures and share them with the world through our newly launched Weekly Reader, social media, and our ever-expanding website.

Our communications director, Lisa Newman, is recording wonderful podcasts from home, and we continue to work on publications, including Pakn Treger, our English-language magazine, Di feder, our high-spirited alumni newsletter, and the latest from our Translation Fellows.

Christa Whitney and her crew in the Wexler Oral History Project are editing, cataloging, and timecoding recorded interviews from home, and they’re about to start filming remotely as well, in order to capture the untold, first-hand stories of older Jews, many in Yiddish, before it’s too late.

In short, we’re responding to unprecedented challenges exactly as you’d expect, with all the grit and ingenuity we can muster. After working relentlessly for forty years to build this organization, there’s no way we’re going to back down now. There’s also no way, however, that we can get through this alone.

Clearly this is no ordinary appeal. We’ve made painful budget cuts already, and we’re preparing for worse still to come, including scaling back programs and, if necessary, restructuring our staff. It won’t be easy—it will, in fact, be heartrending. But even after all that, we will still need to raise $400,000 in order to stabilize our losses by the end of the current fiscal year, so that when the crisis finally does end we’ll be strong enough to rebuild.

Your support at this critical moment is essential—so much so that a board member, Ira Wagner, and his wife Marcia have made a $200,000 challenge. Whatever you give, they will match it, dollar for dollar.

In the past, when I’ve turned to you for support, it’s usually been with upbeat letters about new opportunities or adventures, like rescuing endangered books, or training translators, or, more recently, installing a new roof to keep our books dry and safe for the next seventy years. Today, regrettably, I’m writing not to ask you to help us reach for the stars but to assure the long-term stability of the Yiddish Book Center itself.

Over the past forty years the Yiddish Book Center has faced many challenges, but never one as dire as this. You helped build this organization. Please, won't you stand by us again by sending your most generous, tax-deductible contribution today, when we need it most?

Blaybt mir gezunt un shtark—may you and your family stay healthy, strong, and safe,

Aaron Lansky President

https://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20021b?idb=473052399&DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=1&df_id=4000&mfc_pref=T&4000.donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=3DE6A851EBF23204EDE266B48ED5AD98&idb=0

P.S. If you’d like to discuss a gift or pledge, please contact our director of institutional advancement, Zvi Jankelowitz, on his personal line at 413-409-5117, or by email at [email protected].

Yiddish Book Center

1021 West Street Amherst, MA 01002 413.256.4900 Hours: Sun-Fri, 10AM-4PM [email protected]

#yiddish book center #umass amherst #donations

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dcublogger · 5 years ago

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Laura | International Business

Semester 2 - 2020

Using your degree in the real world

Often students can struggle to figure out how to use the skills and knowledge they learn at university and adapt it to a real-life situation. It’s a concept I struggled with in the beginning, understanding how subjects like IT Skills and financial accounting would somehow be relevant to my future career. Little did I know, I’d be using those acquired skills and knowledge so soon in my future.

At the beginning of lockdown, I decided to order myself a sewing machine. It was something I had wanted to invest in for a few years, but I just never had the time to spend learning how to use it and re-working clothes like I’d hoped to. So, I bought the sewing machine and got to work on some old clothes that I wanted to fix up and give a new lease of life. I was still quite busy with assignments and college work at the time I purchased it, but on the weekends I’d spend a few hours researching patterns and videos online. I got the hang of it eventually with a lot of practice and set off re-working some of my clothes.

One evening, I came across a youtube video on how to make reusable masks, and I decided to give it a go. I started making masks for my grandparents and family members, learning more about the process the more I made. Then, it was announced on the news a week later that the public was being advised to wear facemasks in shops and in situations where social distancing could not be adhered to. I saw this as a chance to use my skill and knowledge of business from my degree. I made a logo online, set up an Instagram page, and messaged about 20 of my friends on social media about it. I got about 12 orders for the following week, which I was delighted with! I had so much spare time on my hands that given the opportunity to spend it doing something productive was a bonus!

Fast forward two weeks and business was going slow. I was only getting about two orders a day, but I knew I was capable of doing more. I was on a Zoom call with some of my friends from college, and one of them, my friend Róisín, has recently started an INTRA placement with the Irish Sun. She was saying how every day she has to pitch ideas to her editor and she needed some inspiration for the next day. We started listing out some ideas, and one of the boys suggested an article on people making facemasks from home. The next day, she ran with that idea and pitched it to her editor, and he loved it! She messaged me with the news and I was delighted for her! But then, she asked if she could interview me for the article. I was delighted to be helping her out and really didn’t comprehend the things that this publicity could do for my start-up business.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/5459242/coronavirus-in-ireland-where-to-buy-face-masks-coverings/

That evening, the article went live, and I couldn't believe how excellent it had turned out. Róisín did an amazing job! Next thing I knew my phone started pinging and kept going and going. I couldn’t believe it when I checked to see over 10 message requests from complete strangers. I was ecstatic and nervous at the same time. After the initial shock, I calmed down and set about organising my business in order to comply with the high demand for my products. I was able to use skills I had learned in modules like operations management, financial accounting, consumer behavior, marketing - and the list continues. The knowledge I had acquired through my degree carried me through a hectic few weeks.

Thankfully everything is running smoothly now, and customers are sending me messages everyday to say their masks have arrived and how impressed they are with them, which obviously gives me a great feeling. I couldn’t have predicted that in the circumstances I would begin my own small business, but im grateful for the opportunity that has been given to me, and I look forward to what the future holds, but for now, it’s all about making my mark, with “Make your Mask”.

Adapting to change - 9th May 2020

What a crazy second semester we have had! Looking back, my last update was at the end of February - which seems like a lifetime ago! This post is really to fill you all in on what’s been happening in my life since then.

We were still on campus for lectures in week 6 of the second semester - I had a lot of assessments in Spanish that week, as well as a few assignments to hand in. I said goodbye to many of my classmates that Friday afternoon - little did I know that would be the last time I would see them for a long time. Then we had a reading week - which was hectic for me! I have been keeping this blog up to date on everything DCU Glee since September - and during reading week, we rehearsed for our upcoming show every day from 10am until 6 or 7 in the evening. It was so enjoyable and everyone in the cast became a lot closer as we spent so much time getting to know one another. It was such an enjoyable week full of fun and excitement - so as you can imagine, on Thursday the 12th of March when the government announced that all third-level institutions would be closing, we were gutted. The closure of the university ultimately meant that our show which was scheduled to go ahead on March 23rd in the Helix had to be cancelled. We are hopeful that we will have the opportunity to perform in the future when restrictions are eased - but for now, we are still keeping in touch via weekly zoom calls. The photo below was taken during our last rehearsal

That weekend, I sadly had to pack up all of my belongings in my Dublin apartment and journey home to Donegal. On Monday the 16th of March we began online lectures - which was a big difference to the usual classroom setting- but thankfully I was able to adapt to the new way of learning. The help provided by the members of staff and the business faculty at DCU was amazing - the transition of going from being physically present in a lecture hall to online learning was a great success. It was difficult at first, but as soon as I structured my days, everything began to fall into place. Most of my modules changed from end of term assessments to end of term assignments, which we were given lots of time to research and prepare for. At first, the volume of assignments was a little overwhelming, but as I began to submit them, and the to-do list got shorter, it all felt a lot more manageable. All of my lecturers have been so helpful and understanding, given the challenge it has been to alter our way of learning. They have been on hand to answer emails and queries from the beginning, which has definitely benefitted students.

One thing that I was really looking forward to was attending the DCU Clubs and Societies Awards - but thankfully, we still managed to have a great night and celebrate the achievements of many students in their extracurricular activities via a live awards ceremony on youtube. This year was DCU Glee’s first awards as an official society, and we managed to pick up an award for the best promotional video for our show.

I have to say, this time in quarantine has given me the opportunity to sit back and look at all the things I’ve achieved and accomplished in DCU in two short years - from becoming a committee member in a society, to working as a student ambassador - I am so grateful for the opportunities that the university has provided me with. I have made friends for life in DCU and I can’t wait until I can be on campus with them once again.

So far, my Erasmus in Spain is still going ahead, and although I feel optimistic, I have told myself that everything happens for a reason - so if I have to adapt to a new way of doing an Erasmus in case of travel restrictions or other reasons, I will do that, and just take every day as it comes. In the meantime, I hope to complete some Spanish courses online in order to keep up my language skills.

A great website I’ve come across in this time is Google Digital Garage, which allows you to complete courses online and gain certificates. I’m currently doing a certificate in Digital Marketing, which will hopefully be a new addition to my CV. A lot of them are business based, so anyone interested in studying it at university, maybe use this time to up-skill or find out about different subjects that might interest you!

https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage-ie/courses

Thanks for reading..

Week 5 - 24th February 2020

Semester 2 has been nothing short of crazy so far! I haven’t had a chance to log on since week 2, and a lot has happened since then!

So during week three, I received my exam results and I am delighted to say that all of my hard work in semester one paid off 😁With everything going on-track academically, my next hurdle was Erasmus!

Erasmus options opened for the students in my course ( International Business) at the beginning of week 4. Thankfully I have more good news on that front - I will be moving to Valencia on the east coast of Spain at the end of August, where I will study and live for a year. To say I am excited is a complete understatement - I can’t wait to have the beach on my doorstep and to be surrounded by the Spanish culture and language🇪🇸I’ve attached a link below of a video that shows off the beautiful city I’ll be doing my Erasmus in. There are of course lots of other destinations that DCU students travel to for Erasmus, one of my friends who is studying Business Studies International with Japanese will be moving to Japan for a year in September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fOFm1x8yZI

In terms of modules, I am studying a Finance module for the first time - it’s very interesting but some of the calculations can be quite tricky so I’m making sure to spend some time studying that throughout the semester. My favorite module so far would have to be The Changing Consumer; a module run by our course co-ordinator who is incredibly engaging and encourages in class discussions and questions. The topic itself is a branch of marketing, and we look at how companies have to strategically plan their marketing projects to suit an ever-changing world of technology and consumer habits.

Last week I attended the DCU Style annual fashion show, which took place in the Helix. It was an incredible night, which showcased the many talents that the students of DCU has to offer - from the stylists to the models, every aspect of the event was run in such a professional manner. The fashion on show ranged from high-street stores to vintage shops and original designers. All in all it was an excellent exhibition of creativity. There is such a great variety of Clubs and Societies here at DCU, there is really something for everyone, no matter what you’re interested in. They really are the best way to branch out and meet likewise people and most of the student body would agree, they're the starting point of many friendships that last a lifetime!

Week 2 - 3rd February 2020

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog, so first and foremost I’ll fill you in on what’s been going on!

Before Christmas was hectic at college, with a lot of assignments due, as well as a few tests in subjects like Spanish. But thankfully everything went well!

Then January came, which meant only one thing - exams! I spent a lot of time with my head in the books after Christmas, and await my results which will be released this week!

This time of the year is incredibly busy for me, we have just started semester 2 and I’m studying a few new modules! I’m especially interested in Finance and the Consumer Behaviour module at the moment! Lecturers are beginning to hand out assignments and on top of all that, I will be choosing my Erasmus destination in a couple of weeks!

In international business, we get to do an Erasmus for our third year of university. In September I will begin studying for a year in Spain, an amazing opportunity that will help me to become fluent in the Spanish language! Some of my classmates will be traveling to Germany, France, China, and Japan to complete their year abroad. It’s such an exciting experience and will allow us to immerse ourselves in the culture of the language we study.

March is fast approaching which means only one thing for me - the DCU Glee Showcase! The cast is working very hard to learn songs and choreography at the moment. It’s going to be a hectic few weeks, but it’s good to be busy and it makes it a lot easier when you love what you’re doing!

This week was careers week in DCU. The Careers office organised lots of workshops and talks for students to help them in their career path. I attended a career resilience workshop on Monday which I found very interesting. There was also an event where professionals from LinkedIn talked about how to create a great profile that employers would be drawn towards. There was plenty going on all over campus!

Semester 1 - 2019

Open Days

The DCU Open days are taking place this Friday 15th and Saturday 16th on the Glasnevin Campus and on Saturday 16th of November on the DCU St.Patricks Campus.

Rewind two years and I’ll take you back to my DCU Open Day experience. I travelled up from Donegal early on Saturday morning and attend the open day with my mum and a few of my friends.

I had an open mind that day, I hadn’t yet decided if I wanted to go down the business and a language route, or if I wanted to study primary school teaching.

I was able to attend talks on all the business courses I was interested in and compare them in length, whether or not they had a year abroad option, INTRA placement opportunities and the chance to specialize in the final year. I was able to talk to the head of each of the courses and find out what modules I’d be studying. The lecturers were on hand to talk to prospective students about any queries they had.

After a tour of the Glasnevin campus and the accommodation, I got the bus to the St.Patricks campus. There I attended more talks on primary education and Arts studies with languages. After talking with the lecturers in Pats that day, I decided to focus on getting the points for Business and Spanish in DCU, as they told me I could always come back after my business degree and do a masters in Teaching. I left that day with the decision that I wanted to study in DCU.

Fast-forward two years and I couldn't be in a better place. I love my course, I love living in Dublin and I love being a part of the DCU Community. When everyone tells you what’s for you won’t pass you, they're not far wrong!

So, make sure to visit the DCU Open days this weekend and have a chat with some students and lecturers if you are thinking about your next step in education. And if you see me working on Friday or Saturday, make sure to say hi 😊

Week 6 - 28th October 2019

I can’t believe how quickly the first 6 weeks of the second year of college have been - it seems like only yesterday when I was beginning my job as a student ambassador for orientation week.

I haven’t had the chance to update my blog in the past few weeks as I’ve been crazy busy between the library and lectures and social life! But thankfully I’ve got a few days off now to catch up on readings, but more importantly to relax and see my family and friends at home in Donegal

I know I’ve been talking all about DCU Glee in my last posts, so I better update everyone on that.. we have a new cast for 2019/20 and everyone is not only super-talented but so so friendly! I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is to join clubs and societies in college - I’ve made so many friends through not only Glee but the other societies I’m a member of. So I’m back to rehearsals twice a week - if anyone's looking for me on a Monday or Thursday evening, I can be found singing around DCU!

Reading week always marks a bit of a hectic time in the semester, as there's usually a few deadlines with projects and assignments. The library gets a little busier in weeks 5 and 6 as people put their heads in the books! It’s always worth it in the end.

In other news, I got selected for the Mentorship programme that the DCU Careers office, along with the Alumni office run for second-year undergraduate students. It’s a great achievement to be selected and I’m really looking forward to finding out more about the career that I want to work towards. I have been paired with a technology consultant in Accenture, and I will meet my mentor at least once a month from now until March. When we meet, we will discuss what kind of career I might be suited to, any questions I have about technology consulting or Accenture, and in February I will participate in a work-shadow day. It’[s just one of the amazing opportunities DCU has on offer - I know I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Finally, the DCU open days are fast approaching. On November 15th or 16th you will have a chance to come to DCU to see what it is all about. For more information and to register click here: https://www.dcu.ie/studentrecruitment/openday

Week 2 - 30th September 2019

Well, it’s all well and truly kicking off this week! The Clubs and Socs fair began on the Glasnevin campus on Monday, and with DCU Glee being a new society, we had a big push on to recruit new students to join us! The clubs and socs fair is always so exciting, it really is a great example of all the great opportunities available to DCU students - from the Drama Society to Snow-sports, there really is something for everyone!

I had a look around all of the stalls and decided to sign up to the DCU Start-Up society, in the hope that I’ll be able to learn some skills and information that will be transferable to my course.

I made my first few trips back to the library this week, after a long summer free of studying, as I had to catch up on some readings for my lectures. I learnt from last year that it’s best to hit the ground running and keep on top of the workload from the beginning - in college you need to constantly be engaged in what you’re learning.

On Thursday evening I sat in my first committee meeting for DCU Glee, where we met with our clubs officer to discuss our plans for the year. We have a meeting with all of our new members on Monday the 7th of October and auditions for the cast are also coming up next week. It’s going to be crazy!

Week 1 - 23rd September 2019

On Monday I began my second year of college here at DCU - It was a long long Summer and I am so excited for the year ahead! I was actually working during orientation last week (16th of Sept) and I can’t believe that it’s already been a year since I started my DCU journey!

I already know that my second year is going to be jam-packed, and I am really looking forward to the coming months. It’s obviously going to take a while to get used to my new timetable and also the new modules I’ll be studying this year, but I feel well ready for the challenge.

I’m studying international business with Spanish here at DCU, and this year is important for me because I want to improve my Spanish skills in preparation for my Erasmus next year, where I’ll go to Spain to study for the academic year.

It’s only week one, and I’ve already been busy with Clubs and Societies! On Tuesday DCU Drama organised an event called “ Festival of the Arts,” which displayed an array of talents that the students of DCU have to offer! I am a member of the DCU Glee Society, and a few of our cast members from last years show got together to perform in the U, our student centre, at lunchtime on Tuesday.

I also began my job as PRO (Public Relations Officer) for the DCU Glee Society. It’s my job to run the social media accounts for DCU Glee and answer any emails or messages that people have about what we do. It’s a great way to use some of the techniques I learned in some of my business and marketing lectures last year, and I’m really happy to be so involved with clubs and societies. I think it’s the best way to meet like-minded people and make friends outside of your course. It has definitely helped me gain more confidence and taught me excellent life skills.

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goscorpgeo-blog · 6 years ago

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Drama Production Blog

Week 7

I joined the group after a lengthy time off due to an operation. My crew were already very prepared and informative in relation to the script and what was required of me. No members of the crew had decided on the editorial role yet which was ideal for myself. I was in charge of finding fitting music and creating a music return sheet just in preparation for the later production stage. I read the script which gave me a much better understanding of the tone and the type of music that would be suited. I was very happy to be editor for the group drama as my ambition is in that field.

Week 8

The crew and I discussed plans for a production meeting as it was getting closer to the shooting dates. On the 7th of March we scheduled a meeting for 2pm in the City of Glasgow College. In the meeting we discussed what equipment will be used. Our goal is to maximise the potential of the equipment and use the likes of dollies to add a more cinematic aspect to the short drama. The crew and I also discussed the rules and regulations of shooting with a young child. It was made clear that the child actor could only work for 45 minutes at a time with an interval in-between to ensure he wasn’t working for long periods of time.

As editor, I am not responsible for being onset during the shooting days, however, I decided to go on the 2nd day of shooting on the 8th of March. Our crew met at the college building around 10:30am and made a journey to Grangemouth. I feel being on-set allowed me to properly gain an understanding of the tone and atmosphere of the short film. I offered my help with moving kit and was assigned as script supervisor to ensure that the lines were said correctly and to make any adaptations if required. I enjoyed being out with my crew as we all worked well as a unit and most of all, as professionals. Max was very good as director as he knew exactly what he needed. The crew in general were very good at each role which most definitely helped the production go smoothly.

Week 9

A week after shooting, it was time to prepare for the edit. Max (director) and I arranged dates to be editing over the Easter Holiday period. The college building remained open over the full 2 weeks to allow time for students to study or work. Initially, we sat and watched the clips together so I could see what kind of shots etc that I would be working with. Thankfully, there were a wide range of shots to choose between. This makes it much better for an editor as it gives variety to the drama and it allows the editor to manipulate the pacing overall. Max and I began the edit scene by scene. I enjoy working with Max as he is very concise and specific on how he wanted things to be done. We were able to problem solve several times throughout the start of the edit due to issues with continuity. Each editing session we had the script beside us to follow and ensure everything was accurate.

Week 10

The aim for week 10 was to power through more of the edit and touch up on any on audio tweaks that we left on purpose. We had an issue which really affected the continuity of the drama. We did not have a wide where one of the actors was looking at the other whilst he talking. This affected the next shot as the take we were aiming to use, started with him looking at the actor who was talking. We sat for around 40 minutes trying to think of ways around it, however, nothing was working. Max suggested that we found another take where the actor is looking at the other actor and then mask the original take and the secondary take together to create one scene. The shots were both wide and static so the possibility of it working was high. I combined the two clips together and feathered the other half, tweaked the colour and it worked. I think this was a really great example of Max’s problem solving mind alongside my editing skills to make it possible. We continued editing for the next three days straight from 10am-3pm. This really gave us the opportunity to maximise our time and take advantage of it. We also had to consider the aspect of music, we searched online for royalty free music. YouTube audio library had a few things which we liked in terms of tone, yet also a simple YouTube search gave us more than what we needed in terms of content. Most artists were fine with simply being credited in descriptions. We felt it would be necessary to consider adding artist names into end credits as well. It was difficult trying to find the right piece of music as most were overly dramatic or just simply did not fit the tone.

Week 11

Max and I felt that the bulk of the edit was complete. We edited Tuesday and Wednesday to tweak anything that needed fixing. When editing the starting sequence, we initially decided to keep the audio from the actors in, however, we tried something different and left a solo audio piano piece instead. This gave the starting sequence a completely different feel which in the end, we preferred. I also created moving opening credit titles as well as rolling credits. I was willing to spend a lot of time on the end credits, however, for efficiency, Max and I decided to keep them simple yet effective. These credits were just a rough draft for the time being. We spent time away from the actual edit to focus on colour grading. This was tricky as a lot of the clips were different exposures and some were white balanced completely different to others. This meant I had to sit and individually colour correct each clip on the timeline to even out tones and adjust brightness. Despite spending a lot of time on it, some clips were very difficult to even out, I had to settle for what I already had at times. Overall, I would say the colour was pretty consistent.

Week 12

After a rough cut was rendered, we were then able to show the rest of our crew and lecturer the work that Max and I had been doing over the two week period. Our lecturer gave us some tips for improvement, however, overall she was very pleased with the outcome and had no real issues with it. Thankfully our work had paid off and it was simple tweaks that needed fixed and nothing major. Our crew were happy with the drama also. Max took note of the things that needed tweaking such as some colour indifference's, clip shortenings and credit adaptations. The final deadline for submission was the 23rd of April. We knew that we had enough time to finalise the edit and submit despite the bank holiday weekend. The tips that we had noted would really take no time at all.

Week 13

On the 23rd of April, Max and I came into college early and started working on some of the tweaks that needed done. Due to us losing the After Effects credit file, we essentially had to recreate the end credits. Although this was time consuming, it was still do-able even before our 1pm class. After our class, myself and Max went back into the editing suite to replace the old credits and then it was simply a case of rendering out our final cut and submitting. Overall, I would say this was one of the

smoothest productions of all and I very much enjoyed working on it with a great group of people who were all very motivated with it. I had no issues with any members of crew or even cast.

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stressedplatypus-blog · 6 years ago

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How to Get Your Life Together (Part 1)

The academic year is upon us once more, and you all know how sucky school is. There’s always so much to do—classes, quizzes, exams, and projects. A lot of us balance jobs on top of that too. So, how can I get my life together?

The college student answer that I’m tempted to give is that you can’t. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try!

I’m a second year chemistry major working in a research lab and as a TA. These are some of the things I do in order to balance my life! Yay! (*off-key kazoo*)

1. Keep a calendar and an assignment book. The calendar is for long term events like exams or things you’ve committed to in the future. The assignment book is for short term homework that is due. I use a desktop calendar, but there are different types! There are some included within your assignment book (I find those too small), on a whiteboard, etc. Pro-tip (to save money): don’t buy an assignment book. Buy a mini-notebook and a desk calendar during the back to school sales. When I was looking for an assignment book, the cheapest one that suited my needs was $13, but I also needed to buy a calendar. The cost was about $18. Buying a mini-notebook and a calendar cost me $6. Pretty good deal, right?

2. Reminders are your friend. Put that reminders app on your phone to use. Set a time for an alert, especially for meetings! Don’t neglect the little things either—you might forget those too. Besides, it feels so good to check things off one by one

3. Time yourself while doing homework. Allot a certain (reasonable) amount of time to get an assignment done. Try your best to get it done in that time frame. For example, try to get your math homework done in half an hour. I find myself finishing my work faster and more efficiently this way. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice quality for quantity.

4. Make a plan for the day/week. I have a break between my 8AM and my 10AM. I set aside that time to finish my homework instead of sitting, scrolling through my phone, waiting for my next class. I already know that I will spend my Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays in my research lab for about 3-4 hours each day.

5. Read ahead. This is extremely important for subjects that you haven’t taken before. You’ll understand a lot more in lecture if you went through the material once before. Information needs time to sink into your brain in order for you to understand, remember, and be able to apply.

Part 2 to come when I also figure my life out.

#college #college life #time #time management #reminders #efficiency #lecture #stress #no stress #how to get your life together

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artificialqueens · 7 years ago

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Extra Credit: Part 3 (Shalaska) - Rosie

A/N: Hello, it’s me, Valentina alaskadelneedles who has changed her pen name to Rosie! I’m back with another instalment of Extra Credit, please enjoy! Feel free to tell me your thoughts about it here or at my new fanfic blog @aqrosie !

Summary: After their last ‘meeting’ in Sharon’s office, the ball is now in Alaska’s court to make the next move. And she makes many moves – just not at Sharon. Cue a sexually frustrated professor giving a lecture while side eyeing the blonde in the front row who’s practically sitting in the lap of the boy next to her. A healthy 5.8k words.

It had been almost an entire week since their last ‘meeting’, and Sharon was beginning to think Alaska was giving her a taste of her own medicine.

Sharon, who last week was too worried to pick up the phone for an entire seven days, was now the one playing the waiting game.

Each day she would type away in her office, her eyes flicking to the door and her heart rising whenever someone walked past her room. But it was never Alaska.

Each night she would come around her fingers, her limbs shaking against her white sheets as the blonde’s name rolled off her tongue and echoed around her bedroom walls. But it was never the same.

Sharon realised this was probably how Alaska had felt last week while she waited for the call Sharon never made, an overly excited ball of sexual energy that was also riddled by self-doubt, nerves and anticipation.

But as Sharon entered the hall to deliver her morning lecture, she knew she wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

Sitting in her now usual spot in the front row, Alaska was chatting away to the bubbly blonde girl who was always the first to raise her hand to answer one of Sharon’s questions.

“How have you not started the assignment for Integrated Marketing Communications yet, Alaska?” the blonde cried, her loud, gob smacked tone allowing Sharon to hear their conversation.

“I dunno, Courtney,” Alaska drawled sheepishly, casting her gaze over to Sharon before meeting her friend’s eye, “I’ve just been busy.”

“Well, I’m going to the library after this with Bendela if you want to come, I can help you start?” Courtney asked.

“Aw, thanks girl,” Alaska smiled. “Ah, I have to do an errand first, but I’ll meet you after.”

Sharon didn’t react as she eavesdropped, her face blank as plugged in her laptop and opened her PowerPoint, knowing fully well she was the errand.

The clock hit 9am and the last few stragglers to enter the hall found their seats, one of those stragglers being Derrick Barry, and one of those seats happening to be next to Alaska.

Sharon forced her eye not to twitch as she watched Derrick fumble into her lecture late and nosily set up his laptop.

Like Courtney, Derrick was a student who always raised his hand. Unlike Courtney, whose contributions were intelligent, thoughtful and aided class discussions, Derrick’s answers were always either mansplaining what Courtney had just expressed, or a bad attempt at humour – or worse, hitting on Sharon.

Sharon caught herself, realising the true reason for Derrick being extra annoying today was because he got to sit next to Alaska.

“Alright, before I begin, I’ll answer the burning questions,” Sharon said to her class. “Yes, there is a mid term quiz and no, I’m not pushing it back, it’s a midterm quiz.”

As a groan rippled throughout her cohort, Sharon caught sight of Alaska, whose sight was set on Derrick Barry.

The sound of a record scratching echoed in Sharon’s mind.

With the back of her pink pen in her mouth, Alaska was smiling at the boy next to her, her thick lashes fluttering at someone who absolutely did not deserve to experience the beauty that was Alaska’s fluttering lashes.

Alaska finally tore her eyes from Derrick and looked at Sharon before giving her a small, cunning smile.

Oh, you wanna play that game? Sharon thought.

“So, Week 3,” Sharon announced, smacking her middle finger down on the spacebar key of her laptop a little too forcefully, her eyes locked on Alaska as she transitioned to another slide.

As Sharon walked her cohort through a new concept and posed questions at them to generate discussions, she was constantly flicking her attention to Alaska, who had it trained on the fool next to her.

She noticed everything, from Alaska flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder and practically onto Derrick’s, to how she giggled at his dumb comments – not that Sharon could even hear them, she was just going off what had previously come out of his mouth – to the way Alaska’s forearms were pressed to her sides, her already perky breasts made to look even bigger.

Sharon nodded along and politely smiled as a student took far too long to communicate a simple idea, all the while picturing Alaska lying across her lap with her skirt up and her underwear down, Sharon’s hand smacking her tight, perfect ass.

“Ah, yeah, exactly,” Sharon said encouragingly when the student finally finished. “This brings me to my next point, social media. Now, who can tell me some ways companies and brands use social media well?”

A few people raised their hands, but none as enthusiastically as Courtney. Sharon smiled and gestured for her to speak.

“When brands quickly reply to customer service posts, typically on Twitter, and are actually helpful, it reflects really well on the brand and resonates with their younger target demographic. Direct messages, like DMs, are also a good tool as well when young people don’t want to call customer service,” Courtney said perfectly.

“Yeah, well said,” Sharon nodded encouragingly.

Contrary to her profession of being an academic, Sharon described herself as technology illiterate. Once she got the hang of one platform, five more were springing up. Apparently Facebook wasn’t cool anymore, but SnapBack was all the rage. Or was it SnapClap?

Derrick raised his hand proudly, and Sharon’s expression flickered slightly, mentally preparing herself for whatever response she would receive this time.

She had recently actively avoided accepting Derrick’s contributions, but she had pulled herself up on it. It wasn’t fair, and it was unprofessional of her to let her own opinions get in the way of a student’s learning, no matter how infuriating that student was.

Her eyes narrowed as she noticed he was reclining back in a ‘too cool for school’ way, his right arm propped up on the back of his chair in an attempt to look like it was around Alaska.

“Sure, Derrick,” Sharon forced out, gesturing at him to speak.

With a smirk on his lips and a look in his eyes he would probably describe as ‘cheeky’, Derrick announced, “I’d like to slide into your DMs, Ms.”

As Sharon’s eyebrows rose, another groan rippled throughout the cohort. They were just as much over Derrick and his bad attempts at hitting on Sharon as Sharon herself was.

Alaska grimaced and side eyed Derrick, but she still didn’t move away from him, instead continuing to almost lean into him, like a couple. Sharon narrowed her eyes at their little seating arrangement.

She could join in on Alaska’s games too though, couldn’t she?

Conjuring up her best fake laugh, Sharon cackled, her face barely moving and her eyes dead as she looked at Derrick.

“Ah, you’re so… funny, Derrick,” she said, even though she had no idea what the fuck a DM even was.

Alaska’s jaw dropped as she witnessed Sharon Needles giving Derrick Barry the time of day.

Sharon met her gaze before she turned around to walk back to her podium to flick to another slide, and Alaska just rolled her eyes.

When Sharon looked up at her class again, she saw Alaska had repositioned herself, now sitting in her own seat and not leaning into Derrick anymore, the cunning smile wiped off her face.

“You know,” Sharon smiled, clearly happy with herself and feeling victorious, “I think I might push that midterm back, just a week though.”

A cheer erupted amongst her students, followed by a smattering of applause.

“Well, that just about wraps us up,” Sharon said as the clock hit 10am. “Don’t forget you have another module due this Friday, and I’ll email you all to confirm the new mid term quiz date.”

It was a flurry of students closing laptops and grabbing their bags as they packed up, conversations filling the room as they began to file out. Alaska and Derrick were still sitting as Courtney confirmed their plans to meet up later before leaving.

As Alaska took a final sip from her water bottle before sliding it into her bag, Derrick leaned towards her, his face far too close to hers.

“Hey,” Derrick said, dragging out the word and failing to do it as effortlessly and coolly as Alaska did with her words.

Alaska just looked at him, her face pitched as if she smelt something bad.

“What?” she said, leaning away.

“Let’s go out sometime,” Derrick said confidently, not even posing it as a question.

Alaska had to hold back a laugh.

“And what would give you the idea I’m interested in you?” Alaska snapped back. She flicked her gaze to Sharon, who was being crowded by students with questions.

Derrick’s expression fell from one of smugness to confusion at Alaska’s instant rejection.

“But, but the lecture… the hair, the flirtin—“ Derrick fumbled out.

“I have no interest in you, no one’s interested in you,” Alaska hissed, shutting her laptop before slipping it into her bag.

“N-no one’s interested?” Derrick faltered, his puzzled expression missed as Alaska slid out of her seat and walked up to Professor Needles.

She joined the crowd of her peers and smirked at Sharon, who was nodding along and mentally scolding the students for not asking these questions in front of the class where everyone would have benefitted from her answers.

“No, I can’t push the deadline back further. No, I can’t process extensions; you’ll have to apply through Student Services. No, five website references are not enough, the librarians will help you find peer reviewed articles,” Sharon rattled off, almost robotically.

Slowly but surely the crowd around her dispersed, the shoulders of students slumped as they faced the reality of university.

Alaska was about to walk up to Sharon to do her normal ‘can I grab another extra credit form off you, Professor?’ spiel, but another student beat her to it.

Striding in front of her and catching Sharon’s attention was Kimora Blac, a cocky double degree Law and Business Marketing student with an ego the size of her ass.

“Good morning Professor,” Kimora smiled, offering her hand to Sharon, who stared at it almost dumbfounded at first before shaking it. Whether they were real or not, Sharon was obsessed with Kimora’s sharp cheekbones, and Alaska noticed her staring.

“First of all, I’m a huge fan of yours,” Kimora gushed. “I watched your speech from last year’s Global Marketing conference on YouTube and loved it.”

“Oh wow, thanks,” Sharon replied brightly, learning for the first time she was on YouTube.

Alaska glared at the back of Kimora’s stupid head, not believing how much of a suck up she was.

“I was just wondering,” Kimora continued, “I happened to be away for the first few weeks of the semester due to an overseas exchange, and I’ve missed some of the modules. Would I be able to apply for extra credit to make up for what I’ve missed?”

Alaska’s eyes grew wide as Kimora uttered the words Alaska always did when she entered Sharon’s office.

Sharon’s surprised reaction was a mirrored image of Alaska’s, and she caught sight of the younger girl’s expression over Kimora’s shoulder.

Alaska smirked and raised one eyebrow. Yeah, she silently asked Sharon, can she?

Sharon swallowed and addressed Kimora, who stared back at her with dark, catlike eyes accentuated even more with sharp, black eyeliner.

“Uh, wi—with extra credit,” Sharon stumbled, “you’ll have to actually apply through the faculty co-coordinator. I can’t process it on my end.” She flicked her eyes to Alaska before she said the last part. “So, I can’t help you.”

Kimora nodded understandingly, albeit a little frostier now that things had uncharacteristically not gone her way.

“Okay, I understand, thank you so much for you help anyway, Professor. I look forward to the rest of the semester with you,” Kimora said, and Alaska rolled her eyes for the second time today at just how desperate Blac sounded.

Kimora turned and walked away, both Sharon and Alaska left to watch her long, black, slicked up ponytail sway above her round ass as she walked out of the room.

Once the door shut and they confirmed they were alone in the empty lecture hall, Alaska turned to Sharon.

“So, Professor,” Alaska said softly, walking up to Sharon, her fingers brushing the buttons of the older woman’s blouse. “Can I have some extra credit?”

Sharon couldn’t contain her laugh as she pulled Alaska in for a kiss.

Sharon wasn’t even pretending to do work in her office as she waited for Alaska.

After their brief kiss in the hall before, Alaska had told her she had planned to drop by her office after their lecture, but first they had to leave the room separately.

As Sharon calmly walked through the campus, her insides were alight with excitement and anticipation. She had admired herself in the mirrors of the elevator as she rose to her floor, a complete turn around from how she felt in the exact same space just last week.

Seven days ago she was filled with so much shame after realising she had screwed a student that she couldn’t even look at herself in the elevator’s reflection. Now, she fixed her hair, checked there was no lipstick on her teeth, and adjusted her cleavage. It was only then she realised she was wearing the same dress she had worn the night she had gone up to Alaska at the bar, and then gone down on her in the bathroom.

While it was office appropriate, it was also black, low cut, hugged her figure and could easily be hitched up. As the elevator doors slid open, Sharon couldn’t wipe the smugness off her face. She had a plan.

Now she sat in her office, tapping her nails against her desk and not even bothering to look busy as she waited for the younger girl, her eyes focused on the digital clock in the top right corner of her desktop.

Finally Alaska appeared, and for once it wasn’t a fragment of Sharon’s imagination, but the real thing. She had seen her in the lecture hall just 10 minutes ago, but somehow Alaska looked even better.

She stood at Sharon’s open door and leaned against the frame slightly, biting her bottom lip in an effort to stop smiling like an idiot.

“Hi, Professor,” Alaska said hurriedly, her voice higher than she would have liked. Sharon couldn’t help but grin back, and it warmed Alaska. They were both as excited and horny as each other.

“Can I talk to you about extra credit for the assignment?” Alaska asked as a colleague of Sharon’s walked through the corridor.

“Sure,” replied Sharon, a little too quickly. “Come in… and close the door.”

Alaska stepped inside and closed the door before locking it. She reached up to pull the blinds down for privacy, but smiled when she saw Sharon had already done so.

Sharon leaned back in her leather chair that was more expensive than the car Alaska was saving to buy before tapping her desk in front of her.

“Come here, baby,” she whispered, and Alaska happily obliged.

She walked around and sat on the hard, wooden surface of Sharon’s desk, the palms on her hands propping her up as her feet dangled. She crossed one leg over the other, and neither of them missed the moment where her skirt rode up, revealing more of her thigh.

Even though she was sitting higher than Sharon, Alaska still felt submissive under the older woman’s gaze. As she watched Sharon’s eyes trail down her body, she felt herself pulse.

Sharon reached out and felt the material of Alaska’s skirt between her fingers. It was baby pink, incredibly short and pleated. Sharon could feel her heart thumping in her chest as she stoked the fabric, failing to ignore all the memories it conjured up.

She was suddenly remembering all the afternoons in high school she spent sitting on the bleachers, smoking and watching the cheerleaders practice, feeling herself throb as their short skirts flew up around their bodies as they were launched into the air. They would wink at Sharon and giggle with one and other, each cheerleader showing off to their favourite audience member.

Then she was remembering her first time, behind the sports equipment shed where her hands had trailed up past the hemline of a school skirt much like this before kissing a girl not at all like Alaska.

Alaska knew what she was doing when she picked this out this morning.

“I didn’t think you’d be so cliché,” Sharon said as her fingers grazed Alaska’s schoolgirl-esque skirt. She didn’t touch her skin, and it drove Alaska crazy. Alaska didn’t want tentative touches; she wanted Sharon to rip the damn thing off her.

“Not as cliché as this,” Alaska replied before leaning back and spreading her legs.

She flicked her pink skirt up to reveal a bright red thong underneath. Sharon’s eyes widened and she cleared her throat almost comically, and Alaska had to bite her lip to stop the laugh that threatened to bubble out.

“What happened to the pure, little white one you had on the first time?” Sharon joked.

“It’s probably still on the floor of that bar’s bathroom,” Alaska said, the tip of her middle finger running over the lace and between her folds as she spoke.

“You want me to fuck you like I did in that bathroom, hmm?” Sharon asked softly, leaning forward to gently kiss Alaska’s inner thigh.

Alaska’s breath hitched as Sharon’s kisses got closer and closer to her core. It took everything in Sharon not to give in yet, to not slide the thong off and bury herself in Alaska. Not yet. Even though she was sitting, Sharon’s hips jerked slightly, her body impatiently hungry for what she knew was coming.

“Yes,” Alaska breathed as Sharon mouthed over her folds ever so slightly. She could feel Sharon’s hot breath against her sensitive skin through the lace, and it made her eyelids flutter.

“Well you’re not gonna get it,” Sharon said suddenly, her slow, sensual tone replaced entirely with bluntness. She pulled away and leaned back on her chair, narrowing her eyes and sizing up Alaska.

“What?” Alaska attempted, sitting up. She tipped her head to the side as her foggy, lust clouded mind tried to keep up.

A smile pulled at Sharon’s lips and threatened to spoil her dominating act. But she couldn’t help it; Alaska just looked so adorable, all confused and spread out.

“You really think I’m going to do all the hard work and eat you out after that stunt you pulled earlier with Barry?” Sharon practically spat the last word.

Alaska’s eyes grew wide before she cottoned on. Her plan at making her Professor jealous had actually worked. They both knew Alaska’s flirting with Derrick wasn’t real, and that Sharon wasn’t nearly as envious and annoyed as she was pretending, but that was part of the fun.

“Are you jealous, Professor?” Alaska asked, sitting up so that she was almost looking down at Sharon, her long legs dangling off the desk as she spoke.

“Very,” Sharon drawled, her hands sliding up Alaska’s thighs before pulling her forwards slightly, towards her, their eyes locked on each other.

“Have I been naughty, Professor?” Alaska asked, her voice quiet, because she feared if she spoke any louder, their sudden bubble of role-play would pop.

Sharon’s chest rose at the word choice as she breathed in deeply. She shifted in her seat and squeezed her thighs together, already feeling dampness.

“So naughty,” Sharon sighed, her hands caressing Alaska’s thighs under her skirt.

Whether they realised it or not, they were slowly moving closer, their world getting smaller as they gravitated towards each other.

“What do naughty girls do?” Alaska asked, her lips inches from Sharon’s.

Sharon paused, her eyes trailing down Alaska’s neck before meeting hers again, and Alaska forced herself not to shiver under the older woman’s gaze.

“They get on their knees,” Sharon said.

Alaska’s plump lips parted as she gasped slightly. She slipped off the wooden desk with ease, eagerly obeying Sharon.

She flicked her long blonde hair behind her shoulders and spread her knees as she positioned herself between Sharon and the desk.

Sharon hitched her tight dress up, the material gathering around her waist as she exposed her pale thighs. She went to pull her underwear down, but Alaska stopped her.

“No,” Alaska said with a shy smile, her fingers hooking under the elastic, “I want to do it.”

Sharon lifted her hips slightly so Alaska could pull her black underwear off. The material clung to her dampness slightly as it was pulled away, reminding them both of their first time in the bathroom.

Sharon heard a soft, low moan before realising it was herself. A blush blossomed on her neck as Alaska pulled her underwear down her thighs, over her knees and down her shins before carefully navigating them between her high heels.

Sharon spread her thighs before lifting her legs to rest her feet on the desk, her red Louboutin bottoms against the polished, oak wood.

“I missed you so much,” Alaska said between the kisses she placed on Sharon’s inner thighs.

“Show me how much you missed me,” Sharon whispered as she ran her fingers through Alaska’s soft hair, emphasising the first word.

Without any more delay, Alaska leaned forward, her tongue lapping over Sharon’s slick folds before dipping in between them.

Sharon gasped, her mouth falling open as she was finally met with relief. Her whole week was building up to her next encounter with Alaska, and every second was worth the wait.

Alaska flattened her tongue before licking one long, slow stroke up Sharon, who spread her thighs wider at the sensation.

A string of moans, gasps and praise was held back behind a bitten lip as Alaska’s movements intensified, building Sharon up before bringing her down, edging her along.

Alaska pulled away, only to bring her fingers between Sharon’s folds.

“So wet,” she murmured, her fingers already slick.

She leaned forward again, her tongue lapping against Sharon’s bud as her index finger circled her entrance.

A high-pitched moan leaked out of Sharon, and suddenly she couldn’t hold back anymore.

“So good, that’s so good baby, ah,” Sharon babbled, her hand on the back of Alaska’s head pulling her even closer as her hips automatically rocked up, desperate for more.

As Alaska slid her index finger in completely, she hummed around her sensitive bud, sending shock waves through Sharon’s body.

Sharon clutched her armrest with one hand, her knuckles instantly turning white as she gripped the leather.

Alaska slipped a second finger into her entrance, and Sharon squeezed around her touch, grasping for more.

“You like that?” Alaska drawled, her voice raspy.

Sharon could only nod feverishly. Moisture gathered in the corners of her eyes as Alaska pumped herself in and out before adding a third finger. She wrapped her lips around Sharon’s clit, showering her in a mix of tongue, sucking and moaning.

Sharon was close. Her limbs were rapidly becoming both weightless and heavy at the same time, and her mind felt simultaneously so distant but so present.

And then her phone rang.

Gasping, Sharon’s eyes shot open as she was ripped back into reality.

Her hand on the back of Alaska’s head halted her and held her close as another sharp ring sounded from the office phone.

Sharon glanced at the called ID and felt her gut lurch. She couldn’t let this go to message bank.

Shooting a glance at Alaska, Sharon picked the phone up before bringing it to her ear.

“Hi Chad!” she sang, greeting her boss entirely too happily. She needed to tone it down.

“Hey Sharon,” Chad Michaels replied warmly.

Sharon loved Chad. Even though she was the Executive Dean of the university, Chad was almost like a loving mother figure. She was in her mid fifties and took Sharon under her wing when she joined the university. Chad, Senior Public Relations Professor Bianca Del Rio and others interviewed Sharon when she applied for this position, and Chad was the one who went out of her way to make Sharon feel at ease and welcomed.

“What’s up?” Sharon said casually, as if this were just a regular phone call with her boss and there wasn’t a student under her desk and between her thighs.

“I know you’re super busy at the moment…” Chad began, and Sharon nodded, looking down at Alaska. She was very busy.

Alaska met her gaze and lightly lapped at her folds before gently focusing on her pulsing bud. They kept eye contact the whole time, and Sharon almost dropped the phone. This was the hottest thing that had ever happened to her in her 35 years on earth – and her boss was semi-present for the moment.

“…and I’m not even the one who usually makes these arrangements but everyone’s sick at the moment, you know how bad this flu season is, but I was just wondering if you were able to take Roberta Queens’ first year Global Marketing lecture this afternoon at 2pm?” Chad continued. “I’m so sorry to throw this on you last minute, but she’s called in sick and there isn’t anyone else to take over, and I know you can handle it.”

Sharon tried to listen to Chad, but she couldn’t pull her focus from Alaska, who was batting her thick lashes at Sharon as she continued.

“Uh, yes I can—ahhH!“ Sharon’s hips jerked as Alaska’s teeth deliberately grazed her clit, the younger girl causing Sharon to gasp right down the receiver to her boss.

“Sharon?” Chad asked, her voice concerned.

“Yes!” Sharon exclaimed, tearing her gaze from Alaska and holding her close to halt her movements. “Sorry, I uh, I had to sneeze, and it just won’t come, you know? But yes, I can definitely do that.”

Alaska pulled away and brought her hand to her mouth, physically having to bite down to stop herself laughing.

“Ah yes! I hate it when that happens.” Chad replied, completely fooled. “It’s such a tease.”

“Yes,” Sharon agreed, her eyes wide at Chad’s word choice. “Such a tease.”

“Wonderful then, thank you so much Sharon, I owe you one,” Chad said graciously. “I’ll forward you Roberta’s email that has the PowerPoint and content notes attached.”

“Yes, sounds good, thanks Chad,” Sharon hurried out, desperate to hang up.

“Great, thanks Sharon.”

Sharon waited for Chad to hang up before she slammed the phone down herself, her attention now fully on Alaska.

“Even my boss thinks you’re a fucking tease,” Sharon whispered as Alaska smiled and shrugged her shoulders in a ‘not my problem’ way, except it definitely was.

Sharon’s heart was beating wildly. She couldn’t believe how reckless they were just then – and she couldn’t believe how much it turned her on.

She tangled her fingers in Alaska’s hair and brought her closer. While their actions before were drawn out and teasing, now it was fast and hot. Sharon took full control, grinding herself against Alaska, who moaned as the older woman’s slickness coated her lips and chin. She returned her fingers to Sharon’s entrance, pumping them in time with Sharon’s grinding and clenching. She parted her fingers, stretching Sharon before twisting and curving them, hitting the spot that made Sharon’s eyes roll back.

“Mmph, fuck, yes, Alaska,” Sharon whined as she threw her head back against her leather chair. She spread her thighs wider, arched her back further, and held Alaska closer, her orgasm building and building as Alaska continued to fuck her.

She felt her abdomen tighten. A spark ran up her spine as her legs tensed. And then she was coming, her body finally letting go entirely and giving in. Her legs shook and her fingers scrunched Alaska’s hair as short, sharp gasps came out through her parted lips.

Alaska could only continue as Sharon came, leading her through her climax as her walls spasmed around her fingers. Even though she was below her on her knees, Alaska had never felt more powerful as Sharon unraveled above her, completely submitting to Alaska’s touch.

Sharon came down from her high, and Alaska gently lapped at her folds, causing little aftershocks to ripple through her body. With heavy limbs and a wide smile, Sharon ran her fingers through Alaska’s hair lovingly.

“Such a good girl,” she drawled affectionately, her speech thick with lust. “I think you deserve a reward.”

She patted the desk above her, and Alaska quickly stood up, hopping back on the desk like she was before. She leaned back and brought her legs to her chest, clumsily knocking over Sharon’s stationary in her enthusiastic process.

Sharon’s hands trailed up her thighs before ghosting her fingers over Alaska’s crotch.

“So pretty,” she commented on the red, lacy thong with flower detailing. She lightly traced her fingertip up Alaska’s folds before roughly rubbing her pulsing clit.

Alaska jerked up, a sharp gasp escaping her.

“I’m not gonna last long,” Alaska managed out, “I’m so fucking ready for you.”

Sharon smiled, leaning down to kiss her. Their lips met, and Sharon’s tongue traced the rim of Alaska’s upper lip as she continued to rub her.

“Your mouth is needed elsewhere,” Alaska gasped as her hips shuddered under Sharon’s touch.

Stifling a laugh, Sharon hooked her fingers under the thin red straps of the thong and pulled in down Alaska’s slender legs.

Now she laid bare before Sharon under the bright glow of the desk lamp with her skirt up, underwear gone and thighs spread. With previous partners, this amount of vulnerability would have been nerve wracking, but with Sharon it was different.

With Sharon, Alaska felt powerful, confident. She felt safe.

Quickly unbuttoning her blouse, Alaska pulled the white material apart to reveal her pink lacy bra and more soft, pale skin underneath. She cupped her breasts as she arched her back against the desk, her eyes on Sharon as she felt herself.

And then Sharon was finally between her thighs, her hands holding her thighs apart as her tongue dipped between her slick folds. She rapidly flicked over Alaska’s clit, feeling the younger girl practically vibrate under her touch. She pushed her to the edge before pulling away completely, not letting Alaska come so easily.

Alaska had to bit her lip to stop herself from crying out, both grateful and furious at Sharon for edging her along.

Now more than ever, Alaska noticed Sharon’s expertise. Maybe it was experience, or just confidence. Whatever the case may be, no one had ever fucked Alaska like Sharon currently was.

While her lips wrapped around her pulsing bud, her fingers circled her entrance, sliding into her before pulling out entirely. She kept going, each time pushing herself further into Alaska and pulling out just as fast. She moaned around Alaska, her actions slow and gradual before they were rapid, building with intensity every second.

And then she would pull away, leaving Alaska a desperate, crying mess who would beg her for more. She repeated this an endless amount of times, building Alaska up only to pull away and edge her on. She kept going, tears springing to Alaska’s eyes as her breathy moans filled the office.

“So, fucking, good, Sharon, ah,” Alaska whined, and she was surprised she was even able to speak.

She legs were shaking, her body was writhing and her walls were clenching around Sharon’s fingers, grasping at her touch. She placed a hand on Sharon to hold her close, and the older woman looked up at her as she continued, her thick lashes fluttering in front of her sultry gaze.

And finally Alaska was coming, her mind simultaneously going blank yet exploding into a million pieces as Sharon finally pushed her over the edge. She squeezed her eyes shut as her mouth parted in silence scream, and her back arched against the hard wooden desk as she held Sharon close.

Sharon leisurely ran her tongue over and between Alaska as she settled down from her high, her legs twitching and her breath shaking whenever Sharon would coat her oversensitive bud.

Alaska propped herself up on her elbows once Sharon pulled away. Sharon found her sensible black underwear forgotten on her nice carpeted floor beneath her and shimmied it on before pulling the skirt of her dress back down.

They smiled at each other, dopey and sleepy and absolutely spent. There was a comfortable silence in the room, no words were needed, their bodies had said enough.

Sharon offered to button up Alaska’s blouse, and they both smiled as her fingers delicately manoeuvred the little white, heart shaped buttoned into their respective holes.

“Would you like to come over for dinner tonight, Alaska?” Sharon asked when she finished the final button. Alaska’s cheeks turned pink at the invitation.

“Yes, of course, that would be lovely,” Alaska replied. The thought of Sharon making dinner for them made her heart swell.

“Perfect, I could start preparing now,” Sharon smiled, joking.

“Don’t you have an impromptu lecture to prepare for?” Alaska asked.

“Oh fuck,” Sharon cursed, feeling like she was back in high school and had forgotten homework was due.

She just wanted to go home and plan what she would make for dinner for her girlfri— for Alaska. Sharon shook her head slightly, not wanting to think about why she so effortlessly referred to Alaska as her girlfriend. An affectionate warmth spread in her chest at the thought of the word – girlfriend.

Alaska laughed at Sharon’s forgetfulness, hopping off the desk as Sharon quickly opened her emails, her head shaking slightly as she remembered her lecture. Alaska picked up her forgotten red thong on the floor and went to put it on before she thought of a better idea.

As Sharon scrolled through a never ending stream of unread emails and downloaded PowerPoints and lecture content, Alaska silently slid open her desk drawer and stuffed the thong inside, the bright lacy material a shocking contrast to the rest of Sharon’s black stationary and bland paperwork.

She brushed Sharon’s blonde hair to the side before she placed her hands on her tense shoulders and leaned down to kiss her neck goodbye. Sharon’s shoulders immediately relaxed and her frantic typing came to a halt.

“I’ll see you tonight?” Alaska double-checked.

“Yes,” Sharon said warmly, swivelling around in her chair and taking Alaska’s hands in hers. “Come by around 6? I’ll text you the address.”

“Sounds perfect, I’ll see you at 6 then.”

Alaska moved to walk away, but Sharon pulled her back into her embrace gently, lightly kissing her lips.

“Okay, see you at 6,” Sharon smiled.

#sharon needles #alaska thunderfuck #shalaska #rosie #smut #cisgirl au #au #kimora blac #derrick barry #chad michaels #extra credit #rpdr fanfiction #lesbian au #college au #student/teacher

186 notes · View notes

aloo-pie · 3 years ago

Note

Literally nobody asked me for this but I just want to contribute 🥺 so here are some things I do:

Cornell notes. If you’re not familiar with the style I highly recommend looking it up and checking out some YouTube vids on it. I need to stress that they do not, will not and cannot look pretty when you’re in class. I take notes by hand because I tend to retain info better that way, plus I haven’t personally found an online/digital method for using Cornell notes that I really like. These notes save my life. I do only the left hand column where I write down ALL the questions lecturers ask in class and then answer for themselves, and write the answers in the notes space right next to the questions. These are usually also things that tend to show up in exams so you can fold the notes space over to cover it up and quiz yourself on the questions if you have closed book exams, or easily locate what you need if the exam is open book.

Writing on worksheets/manuals/syllabi/course outlines. My law school provides us with manuals every year, which are just basically course outlines that walk you through the topics with cases and other authorities listed in between. I get them printed and bound. I use colour coded highlighters (get the cheap ones) to highlight terms, definitions, general points to note, cases, holdings and important facts, and other authorities (legislation, dicta, articles etc). I also write brief facts (for context) ad the holding/essential principle on the page itself so that I know exactly where to find it and it’s colour coded so it jumps out. It may look crazy cluttered but it works!

(Sorry this is the best pic I have of it)

This is controversial but it’s worked for me up until this point: you don’t have to read every case in its entirety unless the case is extremely essential. A lot of cases you can get by with a summary (at least for English/common law systems). I’m not encouraging you to rely solely on summaries you find on the internet but LexisNexis often has summaries that highlight what’s essential in each case. Use wisely.

Buddy up. One of our tutors last year was a court of appeal judge and she HIGHLY recommended teaming up with a friend that you can trust to be motivated and split the work in half. If you have 10 cases to read, read 5 and let your friend read 5 and then brief each other. You reinforce what you read while still being prepared enough to answer questions. Same goes for practice questions, in class assignments and activities. You don’t have to do it all on your own.

Take time for yourself. I personally decide that on days I have a class earlier than 10am, I go to bed no later than 12:30. If my class is later I might push it to 1:30 or 2am, but I try to stop working an hour to an hour and a half before my bedtime so I can relax before I sleep, get on my phone for a bit or read, and maybe have some tea. This time is your time, restrict anxious classmates’ access to you during this time if you need to. You can answer them in the morning.

Reach out! There’s a whole community on here that fully understands what you’re going through! Many of us can either complain with you or give you a helping hand out of it :)

hi 1st year law student here

So my classes started like 3 weeks back, despite that I still dont seem to be able to get the hang of my classes, more so taking notes in class, my classes are 9-5 which leaves me so drained I cannot do anything else for sometime, I am unable to complete my readings, I somehow skim thru them, which means I go to sleep late , wakeup barely an hour before class and just like that another day goes by same pattern.

I cant seem to study what needs to be done, I am in such poor shape (in every shade of the word) I badly need to start working out too... And because of said lack of preparation on my part i do not participate in class and dread being cold called, feels like I have set myself up for bad shit from the start. This hurts way too much coz I was top of my class in school :(

can you please please help me out I just want some idea of what to do so I can bust some ass and catch up by the time next monday rolls around

Heyy, I completely relate to you, I'm fairly overwhelmed myself. But this shouldn't be happening in your first year, so I'll tell you what I did in my first year to stay on top of my classes:

Plan ahead: So you have a fair idea about how much rest your body needs, prepare a schedule according to that. You have 9-5 classes, so take a nap after 5pm and get working. If your circumstances allow it, try waking up early when noone else is awake, that gives you a couple hours before you classes start, at which time you can do your readings pertaining to that class

Online notes: I'm a very fast texter, so what I'd do is I'd have Google docs where I would keep typing whatever the teacher is saying blindly. Then I'd check it again after the class was done in the 10 min breaks we get between classes. These notes ended up saving my asses later on.

Start incorporating a 20 minute workout sesh in your schedule. After a point, the workout will seem so integral to your routine that you'll automatically shift things around to make space for it

Nutrition: Try fixing your diet. Right now, you'll be sitting in one spot with close to no movement. You need to eat healthy, otherwise you'll definitely suffer health consequences for the same. I have severe back problems from sitting for hours on end.

Enjoy your readings: I feel like you're taking law school as a burden and not an opportunity, which is understandable. The only reason I did the readings in my first year is because I was very excited about correlating it with what's taught in class. Start developing an interest in your stuff, watch YouTube videos on the topic if the text seems tough, it makes understanding easier.

Have friends who are driven: you need to have a peer group that encourages you to be the best version of yourself. You need to find people who you see are active in class and start having a mini competition with them, even if the competition is in your head. This will help you do better, trust me. Have friends with whom you can discuss readings and whom you can approach for help if you don't understand anything.

This is all I can think of right now. Do DM me if you want to talk it out or rant in general. Best of luck💗💗

#studyblr #lawblr #law #study #i just hijacked this persons post #sorry I just had things to say lol

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remembermemorablememories · 7 years ago

Text

Monday, February 12, 2018

post #35

main points:

- went to discussion for CSDS, crypto class

- sent out letter to walter

- homework

- club meeting

- personal thoughts

today i:

- woke up past my alarm... it was 10:38am when i woke up. my class was at 11:15am and i could show up at anytime cause we were just demoing our Raft implementation stuff. but i was confused when i woke up cause somehow my alarm for 10am didn’t go off. i looked at the dresser next to my bed and my phone wasn’t there. i looked at the ground and found my phone almost underneath my bed. somehow i must’ve knocked it down in my sleep.

speaking of my sleep, i had a very bizarre dream. and i woke up with... kind of a mess on the sheets...

i went and took a shower, made a PB&J sandwich, and went to discussion

- i got there around 11:25am, demoed my project, and left around 12:10pm to go to crypto class at 12:20pm. we learned about encipherings (CBC and CTR)

- me ryan alex brian and tyrone went to the central food court to get lunch after class ended at 1:35pm. we ate until like 2:30pm ish

- i got back around 3pm and kind of lazed around. i felt so tired for some reason. probably cause i’ve been getting six hours of sleep over the weekend even though i didn’t need to go to sleep so late. i played fort nite over the weekend with dimitri and brian and stayed up so late... sigh

- i finished writing my letter and took it to UPS to mail out to walter. when i went in the guy asked me if i wanted to track the letter and i was like sure why not. he then proceeded to tell me it was $60 for tracking and then i was lie...

NOPE.

so i wrote the letter to the right address on an envelope and sent it out the normal way. apparently it’ll get there in a couple of weeks. snail mail is truly slow (but so interesting)

- went back, did my lecture reading on Zookeper for CSDS

- around 6:45pm, i took the T back to east campus to our hackathon organizer meeting. that went on from 7-8pm. from 8-10pm we had our student developer club meeting (OW). it was pretty productive. we’re starting a mini internal workshop series and today i did a brief talk on github and how to use it for project management (i.e. issues and milestones). i also ended up showing some stuff about branching/PRs. after that, i spent the meeting helping a member deploy his slackbot on heroku, and another new member with some quick iOS things

- took the T back to my apt around 10:30am. stopped by for some chicken tenders since i didn’t eat dinner yet. brought it back to my apt and ate it while watching the office. i’m trying to pull up the episodes i watched but my internet’s being really slow for some reason. it was the episode where gabe made his debut from sabre acquiring dunder mifflin, and also the episode after that

- i showered and looked a bit at the next part of CSDS homework. it’s 12:57am now and i’m pretty tired. i’m ready to go to sleep. gotta wake up at 9am tomorrow

at the end of our OW club meeting, i was chatting with 3 of my friends. in conversation it came up about valentine’s day stuff and when it came to me asking about what i had planned with my gif, i ended up having to explain that my gf and i broke up at the end of last semester. in the moment it felt okay talking about it. they said i was so low key about it that they didn’t even realize it had happened. i also haven’t really told many people yet cause i don’t wanna go around being like “oh yeah me and my gf broke up”. i feel like i should only tell people if they ask. i shrugged and we talked about it briefly, and then moved onto a different topic.

but on my way back to my apt after the meeting, i felt like bringing it up in conversation brought back some more thoughts again about my ex-gf and i just felt this sense of loneliness. it was a sad T ride/walk home. i was thinking to myself that i don’t really talk to her anymore. at least in the same way/frequency. for a moment, i was surprised at how okay i felt about everything, about not having someone to talk to every day. but i quickly realized that i was just playing myself. i don’t think i’m emotionally okay with everything that’s happened. but i feel like i’ve been getting a lot better with coming to terms with it. after i came home and started watching the office and eating chicken tenders, everything was okay again anyhow so

yeah i guess that’s it. time to go to sleep

good night

edit: sigh. i just had to retype this entire post cause my internet cut out. i had to screen shot it since tumblr wouldn’t let me highlight the text of my post. i manually just typed it all out. it’s 1:17am now. i’m going to sleep

P.S. the office episodes are S6E15 and E16

#post #february #2018 #personal

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frandoesphysicss · 7 years ago

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@universi-tea‘s Back To School Challenge: Day 7

As you might be able to tell from the header, this one’s about my daily routine. Since I’m still on summer vac at the moment (I cannot wait for term to start again!) I don’t have much structure in my days, but I’ll try to summarise how everything tends to go during a normal weekday during term time. It’s quite hard to actually remember how you live life during term time because it’s so different to being at home. At uni there is always so much happening that I feel like I’m going on pure adrenaline the whole time, and it’s hard to piece together how I actually live my life afterwards... but here’s an attempt.

6am-7.30am: Depending on how tired I am/how late the last night was, I’ll probably wake up around this time. It’ll probably be earlier if I’m going for a run that morning, so I have time to shower afterwards, or if I’m up early trying to finish off a problem sheet due that day...

7.30am-8am: I’ll have breakfast either straight away after waking up or after running/showering. Usually consists of coffee and cereal, plus orange juice because that totally makes chocolatey kids cereal healthy, right...?

8am-9am: This time will usually be spent faffing, washing up, checking Facebook... maybe doing work if I’m feeling particularly productive, and heading to lectures if I have a 9am.

9am-1pm, ish: This will usually be “work time” either spent in lectures, at labs (from 10am), or working through problem sheets in my room or at the library. (”working” meaning making vague attempts and procrastinating...) 1pm-2pm: Lunch usually takes at least an hour. It’s good to have a break, right?

2pm-6pm, ish: Back to labs/the library for more working! On one or two days every week we’ll also have a tutorial or class in the afternoon, where we go through problem sheets we’ve done in the past week.

6pm-7pm: Dinner, either in Hall, Hand Made In Our Tiny Tiny Kitchen (our kitchen was so smol. so dang smol. we’re getting a bigger one this year!), or getting pizza because I am terrible and a Student.

7pm-12am: At this point, unless I have a severely unfinished problem sheet due the next day, I have given up with work and will be spending the rest of the evening doing society stuff (either at an event or Organising things) or hanging out with friends/the boyfriend. It’s a good time.

12am (or earlier if I’m tired): Sleep! I usually fall asleep pretty quickly by this point. Long days!

Obviously this changes a lot on weekends/during the week depending on how much work I have (more work = Much less chilling) and in the holiday I do far less, but it’s sort of generally how things end up working out. It feels much busier when I’m actually doing it! I might make a similar post back in term time when I’m actually living this again...

#universi-tea-challenge #challenge #studyblr #studyspo #daily routine

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thecurlysafari · 6 years ago

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As people pass you by...

At 17 years old I caught one bus to College, driving past country hills for a brief moment, I used to look afar and picture a life in greenery. As I was city bound for much of my life and as a dreamer, forever with my head in the clouds, I used the bus journeys to contemplate.

At 17, as I walked up the steepest hill to reach the College at the top, I was passed by many of my college friends and classmates whizzing by in their cars. It felt as though 90% of people learned to drive during College years. Then a handful more when I moved to Wales for Uni.

But driving was never a focus or concern for me. Financially also, the cost alone was the same as a flight to Kenya, so naturally, I chose the flight.

For years as I grew, more and more people drove and more and more opportunities would have been far easier with a vehicle. When I managed multiple supported living homes 2 hours from my house, a car would have reduced that to a mere 30 minutes drive. Or the youth charity role having to scout, visit and book hundreds of community and business partnerships across a region, scheduling time in for public transport. A colleague in this role could not believe I was 24 and couldnt drive.

But once again, it wasnt a concern. Not just for the financial reason, it didnt seem of interest and I had a conflict with the environmental and social damage driving would have (my thinking at the time).

But at 26, I decided I wanted to drive and finally found an instructor I connected with. Each Thursday at 8am I would have this lesson and drive to University ready for a 10am lecture. It was a nice routine and lasted a few months. But when a two week trip turned into no driving money that month which turned into, it was too hard I couldnt do it, eventually my lessons stopped.

I genuinely thought it was a skill I just didnt possess and driving wasnt for me. I could not get the hang of it all and perhaps I would just never drive.

Then, at 28, I took a role overseas that demanded I drive, cars, vans and minibuses long and short distances with aid and volunteers to transport also. I decided this was the kick I needed and during my interview process I made the bold claim I would pass my time at the time of employment. The claim was heard and noted and now I needed to deliver.

So my rota was a 21 day on 7 day off system (although often was more 22-23 days on and 3-4 days off). So that month, I travelled back to the UK and arranged a two day intensive with my former instructor. All of those mental barriers had no place, I needed to pass the theory and learn to drive. It was as simple as that. So, the theory was passed and the two days were up. I had gone from a shy and timid learner to a somewhat confident driver who could do things like change gears whilst driving round the roundabout (something that seemed PHYSICALLY impossible as a learner, too terrified to let go of the wheel at any point).

I took the test and with no majors and very few minors, I ...failed. I had to travel back to France and work for another 22 days. But the day of failure would not have a full stop attached to it. As I returned to France on the ferry, I sat and booked another day with the instructor and another test.

I made a claim, I made a decision, it was time to honour it.

22 days later, I travelled back again, with 6 or 7 solid hours of driving with a quick espresso break. What was nice about this new found confidence is that I was hearing all the things my instructor had been saying; but this time there was no constant noise of fear and doubt blocking out his conversation or instruction. I loved hearing his anecdotes about his family and his travels and our social and political debates took up time, whilst I was driving.

The next day was the test. I had to pass. And at 9.30am that day there was the certificate in my hand.

Elated, ecstatic, I told my team and manager I had passed.

So I returned to France the very next morning feeling pretty good about myself. The feeling that lasted all of a few moments. As, my colleague called, from the roadside, with car failure and the need for a pick up. My usual plan would be to run around the team that day and see who could drive one of the vehicles. But low on volunteers that day, the only driver was me!

With no choice I got into the work car, driving at about 2mph out of the warehouse and onto the main road.

Its one thing to learn to drive in 3 days with your cool and calm instructor. Its another to be alone in a French town on the opposing side of the road, driving in an emergency. The driving didnt stop from there as that very day I also needed to drive a small team to deliver aid to a local site that evening, or the aid and volunteers transported the following day via the motorway and a 45 minute drive to Dunkirk.

Its fair to say I lost weight that week, in buckets of nerves and sweat!

My dad finds the stories hilarious and says they are typical of me. Not doing things by half.

But I didn't consciously decide this route, nor did I plan on driving in my first month of passing.

Never at 17 did I imagine I would be driving through that greenery with the sun beaming on my face as I drive for 7 hours along the French coast to Normandy. I didn't believe I possessed that skill, nor did I prioritize it. So, as so many around me passed their test and saw driving as natural as breathing. It took 11 years more of public transport, walking, cycling until I took the plunge and did the same.

I realise how insignificant and tiny this may seem to so many, to whom driving is normal, standard and a given. But after driving the work car, I drove the work van, then the other work van, then practiced in the minibus (which is basically a truck). I drove weekly to another country, driving to Brussels every Thursday. I drove back and forth to the UK and France when I was visiting home. I’ve driven in random country lanes, en route to the French alps, on airfields (not recommended), in waters (also not recommended) and it wont stop there.

But what’s crazy to some is normal to others. For me, learning to drive was one of the best feelings in the world. Only because I gave myself a strict target and zero room for failure. Any thoughts of doubt or fear that had taken up so many years before, would have taken away powerful mental energy needed to learn and store information and muscle memory needed to gain the driving license and like skill.

I shut down any dialogue that said no or presented barriers or problems. Even those around me, although the foundation was love and care, I was told to not be so silly or ridiculous to pass in that limited time.

But plan B’s do really distract from plan A’s...even if that is a Will Smith lyric, the message rings true.

The mind and power of intention is magic when channeled correctly. But I didnt realise how so, until a simple task like this became a mental mountain I had to tackle.

People will always whizz by and pass you as you walk along your journey, getting to places or achieving things perhaps before you or more than you. You may feel like 17 year old me with 90% of people around you doing something, you at present arent or cant or dont want to do. I didnt want to drive at 17 and thoroughly enjoyed my bus journeys and walks. Nor was I ready to later on, although doing so could have been so helpful to short term work gains.

Instead I accomplished more than a simple driving license. I understood what determination and tenacity looked like on a deeper level. I practiced the power of intention and gave myself two months of one sole focus.

So, despite what 90% of your circle or networks may be doing. Only give energy and focus to the things that matter to you. Give weight and significance to as much or as little you care to. Spend ten days, hours or years to learn to drive or learn anything for that matter.

Actually give this power of intention thing a real go (if you dont already). You might end up doing some pretty special things in some pretty special places.

Pictured above...my first 7 hour drive to Normandy. Ignoring the amount of screams and genuine terror experienced by me and my passengers.

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lifeofizzy-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Subwoofers, a huge success? Yeah boi!

As I come to the end of my second year of university (one more deadline pray 4 me), I’m realising, in terms of university, it’s been a pretty great year. Subwoofers Music Festival played more than a huge part in that.

Picture this, a large group of students, ready to start their second year of university, arrive to one of their first lectures of the semester, only to be told that our last event was such a success that we would be holding our next event, not on the tiny, grey concourse, but on a beautiful, 23 acre piece of land, whilst working for an outside client! We were buzzing to say the least. Fast forward a few months, and I believe the original excitement was still carrying us through the stress of organising something this big, that was of course until we found out Neil Mackey (lecturer extraordinaire) would be leaving in December. It’s safe to say this broke us a little bit.

HOWEVER fast forward again, and we were still going pretty strong, things had started to catch up with us, and I think its safe to say at this point we realised who was pulling their weight and who wasn’t, but I think we still had enough passion about putting on an incredible event to pull it off. I’ve spoken about my specific roles in previous posts so won’t bore you with that again, just know that I went into it having absolutely no idea what I was doing, and I came out of it with pretty much the same attitude... except by some miracle, I think I did okay?

(The TeaCups were a huge success!)

(So were the Dodgems!)

Now, I’ll start by talking about the Saturday load in day, because it was a long one! About 10 of us arrived on site at 12pm ready for a day full of heavy lifting and sunburn, and that is exactly what we got. We went in with the knowledge that we had a lot of fencing to move about but I don’t think anything could have prepared us for just how long it was going to take. First we had to lay all of the heras fencing up the entire side of the field as well enough to block off parts of the car park on the day, this alone took about 2 hours. Then we had to go back on ourselves and unload and place out the blocks that would stand up the fencing and let me tell you I have never attempted to lift something this heavy in my life. Another 90 minutes or so later we were done with the blocks and now just had to go and put all the fencing into place and clamp it together. This took about another 90 minutes however we still had about 30 odd signs to put together in the correct positions, but due to some misplaced screws we were unable to put them together before it was time to head home for the evening. Looking back on it now, I think it’s safe to say that we have all come to the conclusion that every single one of us should have been down the day before, rather than just a few of us. Things would have moved a lot faster, and as silly and as high school, as it sounds, it kind of created a divide between people who insisted on debating that “I’m more tired than you”.

As well as fencing, I also had two rides that were being delivered on the Saturday rather than the Sunday morning. We had figured out the Miami Trip would be fine to get on site, however there was a bit of a panic with the dodgems when we realised the ground might be too wet for the 30 ton truck to drive over. As I said in my previous post, we all held our breath as we watched the truck drive over the still damp grass, but apart from having to move a few traders around, everything worked out as well as we could have hoped for!

The next morning at 7am (ew), the lucky ones of us (again, should have been all of us) had the fun job of heading back to site and continuing with the setup for the day. We still had signs to put together, traders to place, marquees to build and now 300 deckchairs to position somewhere on the site. I was jumping from job to job helping people where they needed an extra pair of hands, until about 10am when the traders started to arrive and me and Martyna had to start placing them on site. Frustratingly neither me or Martyna had a radio and there were 2 entrances that traders were entering through, meaning we had to do a lot of running around. Looking back on it now it would have been better to make sure the second entrance was blocked off correctly, forcing all traders to the one entrance. Other than that, trader arrival ran pretty smoothly with pretty much everyone being in position by 12:30pm. The last two rides, Astroglide slide and Teacups, had both arrived and were put into position pretty independently, I went round putting up token price signs and gave the people controlling the rides a quick briefing about prices etc, and then we were off!

(We may have all ditched our posts to have a go (or 2) on the Miami Trip!)

As well as a logistics team member, I was also a second stage performer on the day! As part of the uni acapella society I had also been in rehearsals preparing for our performance on the day. We were the first act on the second stage, starting at 1:10pm, meaning after running around all morning, I had 30 seconds to get changed and get on stage with the rest of them! Our performance lasted about 15 minutes and went relatively well, however I didn’t really get the chance to enjoy it as much as I would have liked too as I was already so tired from a hectic morning!

(Acapella Society after our performance)

After my performance and 2 minutes to pose for some photos with the team, I was back to work stewarding the rides area. Everything ran pretty smoothly for me all day, I was called around to do some smaller jobs at points of the day and actually I don’t think there was more than 2 minutes where I was standing still, but the atmosphere was so incredible my mood and energy was lifted constantly throughout the day.

Although the actual event lasted 6 hours, it flew past. I was having such a wonderful time just being there in the sun with good live music and loads of my friends. Every person I bumped into on the day said it was incredible, and honestly they weren’t wrong. I think we can all confidently say, that we did a bloody amazing job on this event. There were points in the day, where I would just stand still for a second and take it all in, the sun, the number of guests, the music, it actually made me feel emotional at times. I know how hard my friends and I worked on this event, and I know how much it means to every single one of them, and the fact that everything else was running pretty much as smoothly as possible was an absolute bonus!

Once the event was over and all the guests had been ushered out, I let the traders and rides know they could start packing up and get ready to leave. As soon as every guest was off site, one by one, traders started to leave after what I can only assume was a very successful day for their sales. We started to pack down fencing pretty much straight away and luckily between all of us it only took about 90 minutes. With one final tidy round, we collected any littler we could see, packed up the signs/chairs/box office etc and we were on the bus home by 9:30pm, after a congratulatory speech and a little round of applause of course.

https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/picture-gallery-thousands-enjoy-fun-in-the-sun-at-saunderton-music-festival-which-has-a-woof-in-its-step-1-8494970

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/16211630.Thousands_flock_to_first_ever_family__deaf_and_dog_friendly_music_festival/

#Bucks New Uni #Hearing Dogs For Deaf People #Subwoofers #Music #Festival

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