I put in 18-hour days. I work in the same room I sleep in. I never know when or if I’ll be paid. I go days without speaking to anyone.
Wednesday. 3 AM.
I’m submerged in a steaming bath, my laptop balanced precariously on the side. I’m typing frantically. I look at the word count – halfway there. The article I’m writing is due in six hours’ time. I am deep-in-my-bones tired and fighting off a severe bout of cystitis. The bath is only just helping with the pain. I should take a day off, give my body the rest it so needs. But that’s not possible.
Once this piece is filed I have more work lined up. My schedule is coordinated with minute precision. I’m convinced if I miss just one deadline my whole career will come tumbling down around me like a poorly built domino chain.
My eyes itching with tiredness, I wrap a towel around myself and head back to my desk. I’ve not spoken to a human being in three days.
This is not how I expected it to be. Just three months earlier, still in a full-time job, I’d indulged in gingham-tinged fantasies of working from rooftop cafés (artisan coffee in hand), of midday yoga sessions and last-minute trips to the beach. I imagined “brand partnerships” with exciting clients and lazy evenings tapping away at my laptop as I sipped wine. I imagined calm. I imagined contentment. I imagined the sanitised version of the freelance dream that we’ve all come to fetishise, glorify, worship on Instagram. I was an idiot.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 2019 من Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 2019 من Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Letting go of fear
Oozing confidence, Shalindri Malawana learned a long time ago how to take on anything life thrust at her.
Conservation and care
Savera Weerasinghe’s career, from a non-profit to the manufacturing industry to sustainability, has always had a single common theme: start small, think big.
A woman with a cause
Shiandra Gooneratne is in a bat t le against an age-old enemy and plans to make a difference
Telling stories making space
Nabeela Yaseen created a platform for women and girls to feel safe, seen, and supported. She never expected just how many of them would need it.
Saving the environment
Anoka Abeyrathne, a conservationist and social entrepreneur, is only just getting started
Doing her own thing
Shifani Reffai has done a lot of different things. But she’s done them all her way.
Dance etched in her veins
Thajithangani “Thaji” Dias lives and breathes dance
Changing mindsets
Randhula De Silva, CEO of Hatch and Director of GIZ, is a disrupter at her core. And she’s just get ting started.
A guide to making it big in your career
It 's in the details
How To Watch A Movie Alone And Have The Best Time Ever
Movie marathon, anyone? No? Cool, I‘ll go solo!