The Other Me
‘Life’s Short Interruption: Part II’ v. Part of the second year of school entailed practical placement. This meant working about seventy hours in a field of writing or editing. The head of my course had seen me give a presentation on journalism the previous year, so she suggested I put myself forward for placement with Leader Newspapers, as they handed out one place every year. I did, thinking nothing of it, and landed the spot. As usual, I was petrified of what I’d find at the Leader. I wasn’t a journalist. And I wasn’t sure I had the tools to be a journalist. I could write, sorta, and was sorta…
The Other Me
‘Life’s Short Interruption: Part II’ iv. When we’d first gotten together, Allie lamented she hadn’t been around when I’d suffered from depression and anxiety when I was younger, as she believed she would’ve helped me through it. It was a romantic notion. Allie’s own mother occasionally suffered from anxiety and depression. This should’ve given Allie some understanding of how debilitating the conditions can be, but often it’s the people closest to the sufferer who have the hardest time understanding it. When her mother went through another episode, Allie’s initial attitude disgusted me. She’d ask, Why can’t she just get over it? I tried to explain that when this thing hit,…