The night before I started my first office job, I was overwhelmed with anxiety, but was also very excited. I set my alarm for 6 a.m., allowing myself three full hours to compose myself. After all, it is always good to wake up early. Somehow, despite setting an alarm, I overslept.

When I jumped out of my bed, it was already 8:55.

“What?” I exclaimed, running to the bathroom. I bolted out of the bathroom after getting ready and ran to the car.

“Oh God!” I shouted, realising that I had forgotten my car keys in a hurry. I rushed back inside the house, collected my belongings and raced towards the office. As a result, I almost crashed into another car and didn’t even have time to check to see if the other driver was okay.

After a hectic 15 minutes, I finally reached my destination. I rushed inside and didn’t notice the ‘Caution Wet Floor’ sign.

‘Splat!’ I fell face down, hitting my head on the marble floor with my documents spilling out of my bag. What a disaster! I quickly gathered my things and made my way to the reception, tears developing in the corner of my eyes, asking for my boss, Mr Ahmed.

I noticed a clock hanging above the receptionist’s head and realised I was half an hour late! Not quite the first impression I had been hoping for.

Mr Ahmed walked towards me and, after a long speech on punctuality which lasted what seemed like hours, led me to my cubicle where I was assigned a truckload of work.

Finally, after an eternity of reading mails and going through documents, it was time for my lunch break. I went to the cafeteria and ordered a cup of tea and realised I had left my money on my desk. Quickly, I turned around holding the cup in my hand and instantly collided with Mr Ahmed. His face turned bloodshot and it seemed as though smoke was about to exert from his ears. I felt trapped. After another long speech on carelessness, I was sentenced back to my cubicle, my stomach still rumbling. It were almost as if I was back at school.

I entered the cubicle to see a message on my answering machine from Mr Ahmed asking me to bring the Leichester File. Thinking I couldn’t mess this up, I went to get it. Midway I realised I had thrown it in the rubbish bin thinking of it as junk and was frazzled. I had to empty out the bin and was left confused on what to do with this stinking file.

Cologne! I sprayed my cologne on the entire file and rushed to Mr Ahmed’s room. He didn’t realise that the file had been thrown in the rubbish bin although the cologne’s scent had caused a small problem.

The phone rang and on the line was Mr Ahmed demanding an explanation on why everything in the file was wet and the print on it was illegible. He was infuriated and I was perplexed with fear. Fortunately, he had a meeting in five minutes and I was spared from receiving my third long speech of the day.

Office hours finally ended and I went home completely worn out and hungry. I immediately went to bed and fell asleep hoping that the next day would be better than the one just ending.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 11th, 2018