Creative Crunch

I was introduced to crunch by Alice*.

I’d fallen in love with her six months prior at a work conference. Our eyes met across the room over cheap beer bottles — lacquered nails obscuring the wrappers. She was beautiful, bright eyed and well dressed. She made a beeline for me, dodging creatives and ignoring executives who sought her conversation, as drawn to me as I was to her. I fell for her with a sudden kind of violence, all before she even told me her name.

We were fast friends. I learnt that she was a photographer and videographer in charge of several projects with an ever-increasing skill set. Anything that needed doing she taught herself to do. Often this learning found her in front of online tutorials at four in the morning, body shaking from too much caffeine, eyes dry and stomach cramping. Like her art, she painted this picture beautifully. ‘I can learn anything with YouTube and coffee. Anything!’

She was dedicated, talented and hard working. Eager to learn and eager to please. Eager to be recognised in a male dominated industry by working double their hours for half their recognition.

This is where our story starts:

12:01pm
It’s a really cool project

This is where it ends: