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30 Apr 18

Daniel Ryan (Write Here, Write Now/ 3rd level finalist)

A 23 year-old from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, now in his final months as a student, Daniel hopes to pursue a career that allows him to take advantage of his two passions, music and writing. When he is supposed to be studying for his Public Relations degree he likes to procrastinate by listening to The National, Beach House and Sufjan Stevens, and reading authors like Philip K. Dick and Cormac McCarthy. He hopes someday to emulate his favourite artists in his own work.

And now for Daniel’s WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW entry ...

Breakfast

The ‘Ripples’ alarm tone began to emanate from the speakers of the IPhone 6 and quickly pulled Daniel from pleasant dreams into the harsh, cold, reality of 7:30am in a bedroom on the second floor of a rented estate house in Blackrock. Sensations began to kick in. The weight of his eyelids now seemed heavier than the barbells he’d lifted in the gym the last time he went roughly 3 months ago. Daniel stretched himself to the bedside lamp and flicked the switch, a slightly underwhelming burst of light helped lighten the load on his eyelids. He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down to his IPhone. With his free hand he rubbed his eyes while he opened up the Snapchat app for his morning ritual of perusing his “friends” antics from the night before. He glanced at the time - 7:37am – great, he didn’t have to be in college till 10am so he had an hour and a bit to get himself sorted before he got the bus to town.

Last night’s Snapchat stories were no more interesting than usual and he quickly tapped his way through them. Swiping out of Snapchat he opened up the Facebook app for a scan of the morning newsfeed, ‘Adam Smith is interested in Elton John at the 3arena’, ‘Jenny Barker added Tom Turner as a friend’. Daniel watched a 2-minute clip of Ryan Gosling skateboarding then closed the app. He looked up at the time again – 8:31am – “What the hell?!” he’d spent 5 minutes on Facebook, 10 max, he was sure of it, how had an hour passed? Daniel consulted his mental timetable; he’d have to leave the house by 9:05am to get into college on time, that left what was now 31 minutes to fit in a shower, dress himself, have breakfast and drink coffee before leaving.

The warmth of his bed was far too benevolent to leave straight away so he gave himself till exactly 8:37am to prepare for the brisk fumble of getting out of bed and into the hot shower. He opened up Instagram for a quick scan, before leaving his beds embrace. An upward glance moments later showed the time to be 8:46am. Daniel jumped out of bed and pulled back on the pair of jeans from the floor where he had slid them off last night. There was no time for a shower. He ran downstairs and flicked on the kettle then ran back up and brushed his teeth.

Bounding down the stairs again, he pressed the lock screen on his phone and the time was revealed to be 8:53am. He poured out hot water on top of a layer of instant coffee granules and quickly downed it to his throats disdain. It was somehow now 8:58am – there would be no time for breakfast so he grabbed a banana and left out the front door, opening up the Facebook app as he locked the door behind him.

Readers’ Choice Award
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