Memory #1: Waking Up Alone in the UK

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dim morning light in my student room

A quiet morning that cannot be captured by time or temperature.

Sensory description

That morning the room was very quiet. Grey-white light slipped in through a gap in the curtains, making the walls and the red-brick building opposite look slightly cold. When my feet touched the floor it felt a little icy, while the inside of the duvet was still warm and heavy on my body.

What cannot be recorded as data

In that moment I felt a sharp mix of “I am really here in the UK now” and a kind of hollowness and uncertainty. The excitement, fear and floating feeling happening all at once cannot be captured by any temperature reading, alarm time or attendance log. Those systems would only record that I woke up, not how it felt to exist in that morning.