I live in Pacifica on the coast, and during finals weeks I usually drive as BART and the Emery-go-Round don’t run at 3 in the morning. On this particular day I was tired from spending the previous day doing something I had rarely been able to do since my core courses began; which is surfing. I woke up at 6:45am intending to beat the early morning bay bridge traffic to my scheduled 8a-4p class. I got to class on time. 8am-11am is our scheduled lecture time - which today meant spending time working on my reel, seeing as it was due by the end of the week. During lunch I tracked down some of my past instructors. Ty Carrier was kind enough to look at a rough copy of my reel format and give me some feedback during his lunch hour. I spent the last minutes of my lunch hour at my classmates apartment heating up leftovers from a dinner we had all cooked from a previous long night earlier that week. Back in lab by 12, we all began working knowing that this was yet again destined to be a very long day and night. After class at about 4pm some of my classmates and I decided to take a break over at Bay street. We had a dinner at Rubio’s for $1 - Taco Tuesday’s! A tradition we started a few months earlier with now graduated students. Having spent a few hours (and only a few dollars) eating and speculating about our impending graduation and future careers, we headed back to school.

We found open computers at school, and my classmates who lived at Emerybay elected to stay at home and work on their own equipment. It wasn’t until midnight that I realized that I had forgotten to call my Mom. I usually call her to let her know that I will be staying at school so she doesn’t stay up and worry. Animating is a very tedious process and it never seems to end. Just a little more movement here, more arcs there and it still isn’t timed right. My classmates and I had brought movies and CD’s to have as background sound to help us get through the night. We often brought our own entertainment to break up the work and keep us sane. Well, after all was said and done I just couldn’t bear to keep my eyes open any longer. At about 3am I just curled up in my chair and took a power nap. Feeling a bit refreshed afterward, I continued on. I needed a midnight snack so I perused the vending machines in the Cafeteria and read the Guardian. I went back to my station and finished as much as I could and eventually put the tablet pen down at 6am. I walked outside, the first light of day starting to creep over the hills. The air was crisp and wondered what the surf was like. Later that day of course, I needed to sleep as I had been awake for the better part of 24 hours!

This describes an extra long day at Expression while working on my final reel, which will lead me to the first step in my new career. Overall the hard work and long hours at Expression have all been worth it and I’m eager to put my new skills to work!

Check out Alia’s website to see more of her work:
www.aliayasmin.com