Headspace: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department write about a place or space they go to write, read, study or create. [Read all entries.]  [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.]

This is where I got punished for my constant procrastination.

The place looks different now but it’s still the area that suffocates you and your brain. All you would need is a portable fan and perhaps two bottles of energy drink. They keep you alive, after all.

And of course music—a long playlist of music—that brings you from the 1812 Overture to The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Hello.

Certainly, movies came to mind too, like V for Vendetta and… The Iron Lady: “Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions.”

I remember how the sound of someone’s fingers hitting a keyboard got my attention. I returned from recalling the movie lines and looked at that person through the slit between my screen and drinks.

“Yea. 1500 more words to go,” I said to myself.

What followed as always was the headache as I walked to the bus station at dawn—but I’ve always loved the wind.

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A graduate of the Class of 2016, BA ENG and BEd ELT, Ivan Kahei Au loves singing songs from the greatest musicals.