You lose your sense of humour

You lose your sense of humour when you’ve only got a week left to write a 5000-word coursework essay and you still haven’t started even though you’ve had three months to do it and you’ve had a fever for the last week which has kept you awake at night so you’re feeling tired as well as ill whilst trying to think what to write but you can’t concentrate because there’s a contract sitting next to you waiting to be signed but you don’t know whether or not to sign it because it’s for a flat you’ve made an offer on but you’re not sure whether to go ahead and complete because everyone’s saying it’s a bad time to buy because the housing market’s going to crash and you’d be a fool to buy now but then again if you don’t you’ll lose the flat you’ve had your heart set on the flat you walked past the other day and saw the owner in the window cradling her newborn baby who she’s waiting to take to start a fresh life in a new house where another family sits waiting to move but you don’t know why because you’re not dealing with them directly because they’re further up the chain but your decision still effects them and potentially even more people because you don’t know how long the chain is or exactly how many lives could be turned upside down by your decision but you can’t think about that because you’ve got an essay to write and the deadline is drawing nearer and the page is looking blanker and bigger and you still can’t think of a word to write so you might as well switch off the computer and try again tomorrow because everything looks smaller in the light of day