Today is the saddest day of my life.

I can’t believe this. No, really I can’t! How do I lose my memory stick just 2 hours before submission deadline?? Look, I’m not one to believe in witchcraft or tikoloshes but, hey, this boggles my mind. I mean, this just doesn’t make any sense at all. How can I lose a memory stick with the only copy of my assignment two hours before it’s due. Tikoloshe must have stolen it surely.

I really can’t find any explanation for it besides the sad reality that the universe is conspiring against me. I mean, how much crap does this week have in store for me?

On Wednesday, Sebastian left me! Yes, he left me. I know that’s not how he’d love me to see it, but…well that’s just how I see it and I can’t change how I see it. Now, I lose my memory stick, after working so hard on the assignment, after sacrificing my sleep so that I can work on it and submit it. I mean, I worked throughout the night and made sure that I finished it this morning. But, now, the memory stick is nowhere to be seen. What’s worse is that I didn’t save it on my laptop. I also don’t know why I didn’t do that coz that’s what I usually do.

I went to Mr William’s office and tried to explain my situation to him. He’s not buying it though. To him, I’m just another student who’s coming up with a lame excuse for not doing an assignment. He says that’s what students do around here, procrastinate until the last minute and then hope that their lecturer will believe their lie. I told him that I’m not like that.

“If you were like that, do you think you’d admit it? Of course you wouldn’t!”

Well, at least he’ll still going to take my assignment, but I will lose 20% percent for late submission. Trust me, that’s the last thing I need right now in my life. I can’t afford to be losing marks willy-nilly.

I mean, my marks for the first test were bad enough. Now, I just lost 20% on my assignment! Not only that but I still have an assignment of 12 pages to work on. Again. Now, I know 12 pages might seem like a few pages to you, but trust me it’s not that easy. Especially if you’ve already lost marks.

This is really not my day.

I told mom about the lost assignment. She didn’t freak out as I expected her to do. She didn’t scream or call me careless or try to make me feel bad about it.

“It gets tougher towards the end. Sewuzogqiba (you’re almost done)…” those were her only words and for some odd reason they made me feel a little better. So, now I’m sitting here trying to retrace my trail. The last time I saw the stick is this morning at 3 am before I slept.

I remember putting it inside my bag, but this morning when I got to the printing shop on campus, it was nowhere to be found. I’m trying to think of how it got lost and the more I think of it, the less sense it makes. The only thing that makes sense to me right now is that some tokoloshe stole my memory stick.

Too bad though because that explanation won’t work with Mr William. To him, I’m already just a lazy student who is telling lies to cover her laziness.

Ugh. School is boring. This is not the kind of welcoming I expect to get from my birth month!

I’m sad for days!

ZZ xxx