Please play this tune while reading this post (sorry, if you experience an ad. I hope you can wait it out). It is Daft Punk ft. Julian Casablancas Instant Crush (Video)
Wednesday early eve after a long day, a lecture, some admin, a meeting and a seminar on a topic the students found really hard. I needed to leave work, not because I was done but because my kid needed to be picked up. I packed my things in a flurry, switched off the lights, shut the doors and exit.
I am as always in a huge rush when I leave, thinking about the one hundred things I have to get on with when I get home. Nothing unmanageable and some of them are things I even look forward to like putting the kid to bed.
I run down the stairs with my little backpack shouldered, hoping I left nothing crucial behind. As I get to the bottom of the stairs on the ground floor I can hear the tune you are listening to now blasting out of the sewing studio at great volume. My first thoughts were that I love it and question whether I recognise it? Have I come across it before? Who is it by and what playlist would I stick it on? My second thought is that it is louder than is possibly acceptable in a professional setup which probably means that Sarah and the technicians have left and it’s Open Access time.
I peek into the room and a wonderful scene opens up in front of me: a beaming Asian boy with the sharpest buzzcut is on the far right side, what a gorgeous kid. Perfect face, casual outfit, I think white T-shirt and raw jeans. He handles a menswear mannequin and talks to a girl sitting on the cutting table in a yoga seat. Her hair was dyed reddish-brown, swept back into a short messy ponytail with a relaxed fringe. Her outfit is typical fashion student, rags tied tall over her. A mess, but a good mess. She is infected by the mood and smiles a lot while she speaks. I can make out some piercing that only someone like her can pull off. Another gorgeous kid.
On their right is a girl, probably blonde? Not sure what she was exactly doing but she was as cool as the other two nodding along to the music and carrying on working on her materials and a notebook. As I had peeked for a little too long I withdrew but not before getting a glimpse of the back of the Timothy Chalamet look-a-like who worked on a small intricate detail on the stand closest to the door. Fully concentrating and hopefully feeling as lucky to be there as I am to witness the moment.
Standing outside I still listen to the tune, I open Shazam and the app is listening, listening ….. Daft Punk – Instant Crush, of course. I add it immediately to my coolest playlist.
I hold this moment outside the doorway, grateful that I get to work with kids like these and full of joy that they get to have moments like these while being in education. Peaks of utter contentedness when things just work out for a moment. I hope they have lots of those and feel looked after by all of us, tutors and technicians.