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I was jolted from my deep sleep as my phone alarm went off. Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt! It kept ringing. Half-awake, I stretched my hand to grab the phone and swiped the alarm logo to the left to snooze it.
"That will buy me another ten minutes of quality sleep," I muttered as I dropped the phone.
But it seems the way time operates while asleep differs from when awake, because I could have sworn I only slept for a minute, yet the alarm went off again.
"Oh no," I cried silently as I snoozed it again.
This scenario repeated itself about four times; by then, 40 minutes had already gone by. Abruptly, I heard a knock on the door.
My dad urged, "Won't you get up? It is already 6 o'clock; you will be late for work."
"Ok, sir! I'm awake," I replied as I sluggishly got up from my bed and headed to the kitchen. At that moment, I was doing everything I ought to do, not out of will but out of necessity. I was moving like a plane on autopilot.
This has been my reality for almost one month: waking up around 5 a.m., doing my chores, leaving the house by 6:30 a.m., and getting to the bus station to queue for the bus. Then trekking about 2.5 kilometres from the last bus stop to work. I ensure that I get to work around 7:30–8:00 a.m. and then close by 6:00 p.m., trekking the same distance back to the bus stop. When I get there in the evening, I usually wait in line for about an hour, sometimes more, before I get a bus.
More than two months ago, I was in a different situation. I was in school, receiving lectures and preparing for tests and exams. During those times, I would always lament the stress of schooling and preparing for exams, saying, "Oh, I can't wait for this semester to end so I can start my industrial training."
But right now, with one month in, I am tired of living the worker life. I thought, "The grass would be greener on the other side."
Oh, I was wrong. While tertiary schooling is very stressful, the stress of working in a factory is almost twice as high, coupled with the fact that my house is far away from the factory and I have to work six times a week.
I took a tricycle from my house to the bus stop, and as soon as I alighted, I jogged to the bus terminal.
"Hello, good morning," I said as I tried to catch the attention of the middle-aged woman in the queue, who was wearing a multicolour Ankara dress.
"Good morning," she replied.
"Please, I'm behind you. I want to top up my bus card," I said as I hurried toward the people in charge of topping up the card.
Fortunately for me, there were enough buses on the ground, so I didn't have to wait long before I got on the bus.
I sat in the bus, thinking that if it were another day, perhaps I would be scrolling through my phone, checking WhatsApp messages or hopping from one app to another. But two days ago, my phone fell and the screen got damaged, so I am currently phoneless. I felt bored but had a very unusual sense of peace of mind, unlike other days. I realized that without my phone, my mind was light, and I was more focused on my surroundings.
I sat by the window, laying my head on the glass, and my gaze was fixed on the various buildings and structures that fleeted away as the bus sped off. It was like a time freeze as I gazed on.
"Good morning, Sir." Everyone in the lab greeted me in unison as I entered the office.
"Good morning, guys," I responded as I moved to my seat. "What's the report on the analysis?" I asked Mr. Michael.
"Sir, we have concluded the test and we are satisfied that the material is OK for use."
"OK, I would like to see the certificate of analysis on my table as soon as possible."
"Ok, sir," Mr. Michael said as he went to the computer to print the file.
On my table were numerous files for my sign-off. While reading them one by one, my mind began to recollect those times when I was still an I.T. student in the quality control lab, answering to the boss and my other supervisors. I began to smile as those memories flashed in front of my eyes.
"How time flies; then I was just an ordinary industrial trainee, but now I am a boss and head of a department in an international company," I said to myself while grinning.
But the bus honk jolted me back from my trance-like state and away from my daydreaming. I smiled as I recalled all that my mind had generated. I looked around and realized I had reached my destination. I pressed the stop request, and some minutes later, the bus came to a stop.
"Maybe one day I will be the boss, working as the chief industrial chemist, but for now I am just an undergraduate doing my industrial training," I muttered to myself as I sheepishly smiled at my daydream.
