I click. I tap. I set it up. Everything is running smoothly. I check the time; 3 minutes to. I sip my tea. I check my emails. I wait. I wait.
And then, it starts.
No matter how much we prepare, no matter how early we join the call, it is guaranteed some issues will fall through in the world of the techy.
Last week I interviewed Ella Frears, a young poet who is most well known for her collection Shine, Darling (a collection which I personally hold dear to my heart). Everything was swell and we were getting along great.
And then, it starts.
You would think I would be used to the buffering and missing words by now, after surviving my final year of my undergraduate being largely online. But the frustration never settled, it simply hid in the shadows, waiting to lash out again.
Ella was lovely, easily understanding of the situation I was in — jumping in and out between buffering and the call continuously crashing.
Though, looking back over the hour session I think it ended up calming my nerves more than derailing them. Sure, at first I was stressed over the situation, feeling that I was wasting time faffing around with a crappy old router. But thanks to Ella’s warm laugh and calm patience I was able to pull through.
I do hope to soon share the interview itself — maybe with some tweaking to the video due to the lags and strapping on my engineer hat that consists of turning the wifi on and off. But until that time I leave you with a quote Ella left me in her pamphlet I am the Mother Cat;
‘The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks’ — maybe a foreshadowing to my wifi holding on my its last never but never truly giving in.
More to come on my interview with Ella Frears soon!
