She woke up to the chills running across her toes. Beneath the red knitted socks, she could still feel the icy coldness of her skin. Turning around on the small single sized bed, she saw snowflakes illuminated against the orangey light of the lamp-post outside the window.
Forcing herself to get an extra pair of socks, she dragged herself out of bed only to find herself bumping into the two open volumes of Anatomy atlas, that were lying open on the floor.
She mumbled a soft curse, before picking them clumsily up, piling them onto the already messy table. Bio-organic chemistry textbook, stacked upon an open page of Biology book and the General Chemistry lecture notebook was pushed aside, as if forgotten.
Her face screwed up in annoyance. It was the weekend, and she was stuck with so many things to cover, she wondered if it was even humanely possible. Giving up on the pair of socks, she sat up in bed, hand phone in her hand, staring longingly into the wallpaper of her parents, smiling back at her and sighed inwardly. How on earth did she end up here?
She woke up the next morning to a cramped neck. She had fallen asleep on the table again. Stretching her neck cautiously, she groaned when she saw the time. It was 6 am, and also time to get up. Although it was still pitch black outside, she would have to leave in an hour. Chemistry classes took at least one and a half hours to get to, minus the walking distance through the snow.
She let out a frustrated sigh when she heard the soft splattering of the shower being run. The toilet was occupied, which means that she would have to wait for her turn. That would take another extra 10 minutes. Picking herself from the chair, she moved to the fridge for a mug of milk. She hated swapping breakfast slot over shower, but she had no choice. Time was ticking.
Putting down the pen, she stared down at the empty answer sheet. She hated Physics more than anything else. It just didn’t make sense. She looked around as the others handed in their answer sheets and headed out for lunch before the lecture that afternoon and wondered if it was alright to forfeit this test and retake it next week. Deciding against any chance, she scribbled last minute everything that she had inside her shriveled brain.
Walking back home, she dodged the speeding figures heading towards the hostel and puffed an indignant sigh of protest. They were racing for the stoves at the pantry. There goes any hope for an early dinner, she thought as she reached inside her pocket for a packet of whole-wheat graham crackers from this morning.
And that was how her days went by.
5 years later
The alarm rang at 6am and she found herself kicking off the covers as she made her way towards the shower. It is usually empty at this time of the morning, as everybody grew lazier for an early start of the day. It left her time for a leisurely shower and ample time for breakfast later.
Drying off her hair on a smaller towel, she emptied a sachet of coffee pre-mix into her jumbo sized white mug, pouring hot water in it to a tantalizing aroma of hot coffee. Smiling, she sipped her coffee as she flicked her Samsung to life, tuning into CNNmobile for a brief sweep of today’s news and weather forecast.
An hour later found her snuggled warmly into her neckwarmers as she braved through the morning mist and snow, heading towards the subway, high boots protecting her legs and warm gloves keeping her fingers from numbing to the cold.
Thanking the patient for his cooperation, she went into the lounge to get the case report for her patient. Finding it easily on the rack to the side of the room, she grabbed her bag as she made her way towards the benches to examine the anamnesis closer. Stashing her stethoscope into her pockets, she started to jot down notes on her notebook. The Russian cursive no longer a bother as her eyes grew accustomed to it and the language no longer a hassle as her vocabulary grew throughout the years.
Stepping into the lecture hall 5 minutes later, she greeted her colleagues above their noisy chatters and whispered gossips. Skipping lunch for a chocolate bar and water, she too joined into their conversation as she caught up to the lives of Spartiv’s elites.
Picking up grocery from the market across the hotel became more of a habit than a necessity. As she asked for a portion of chicken breast, she wondered what to cook for dinner. The kitchen was empty in the early evening. That was the time she liked to cook. Free from the rush and hassle of her other 8 housemates. Chopping up the ingredients effortlessly, she threw them one by one into the pan, almost automatically. Half an hour later, dinner was done. Stir fried vege and ayam masak merah with rice.
Later that night, she was facing her laptop, an open volume of Harrison’s Internal Medicine next to her. Clearing up some facts online, she hummed in approval as Wikipedia satisfied her curiousity. Grabbing an empty A4 paper on the printer, she began scribbling notes to the accompaniment of her iTunes, on shuffle.
That was how her life evolved.
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