Echoes Down The Corridor

Failures and Texting

A/N: Greetings from (HELL!) an Army Base somewhere in the south of England for my AOSB (Army Officer Selection Board). Yup, that is what has prevented me from updating - you can't actually make this up! It's ready short, and I apologize, but I have to make this quick coz I REALLY shouldn't be on my phone after lights out and I'm DEAD if they catch me :\ Anyway, I'll be released at 2:00pm GMT on Wednesday, so (provided I survive) I will have a 4 hour train journey to update for all you lovely people (although, in reality, I'll probably just sleep!) :D If anyone finds a way, I could really use a telepathic hug right now...oh, and *** denotes text message :)

I flopped down onto my "bed", if you could call the rock-solid lump beneath me that, exhausted. Everything seems to have gone wrong today: messed up all of the written tests, the entire group failed the leaderless command tasks and as for the interview...needless to say, I've made a complete arse of myself. There's no other way to describe it.

Looking at my watch in the midst of my desperation to leave: 11:22pm, I have 5 and a half hours until I need to be up and ready to face impending doom again. 

"Come on Abby, you can do this," I said to myself. It's kinda like Christmas when you're little - 1 more sleep, then planning exercise, command tasks and the physical test, then I can go home.

Home. Even that wasn't really enough to convince me to continue, so I texted the 1 person who I could guarantee to be up at this time, who would respond and listen to my inevitable rant:

***Hey Sarah, you awake?***

I throw my phone onto the excuse of a bed, willing time to pass quicker. Thankfully, she doesn't take long to respond:

***Yes I am baby girl, marking Y7 assessments. How's it all going? Really miss you - we're so gonna have to catch up on Thursday ;)***

My girlfriend, caring as ever. Not quite sure what she means by "catch up" - all I want is a cuddle and a chocolate bar right now! Not wanting to keep her waiting, I quickly respond:

***Oooh, Y7 burble, exciting - what a fun life you do lead...in other news, I feel dead and we haven't even done the physical test yet! Oh, I can't wait to fail and be done with it all, then I can come home and focus on your stupid English Mock, among other things. I'll be home at about 7:30, so I can't come over :( xxx***

Again, she responds:
***It's alright sweetie, I can only dream of how tough it all is...how about you come over on Friday, give you some time to recover? We can just have a chillout movie and takeaway night, celebrate you coming home and never leaving me again ;) xxx***

This cheers me up no end - now I can look forward to a nice night with the person I've come to love. Can life get any better? Well, I have a final day of Army Officer Selection to survive first...

A/N 2: Yeah, welcome to my world. Now I know why the British Army is struggling with recruiting - this is the most intensive and stressful thing I've ever experienced, and I honestly haven't enjoyed it :( I think it would be slightly easier if 15/16 year olds weren't doing the same level (and MORE tests!) as 23 year olds, aka the normal age for an AOSB! Oh well, excuse the rant and love to you all xxx